Card Apprentice Daily Log

Chapter 2743: Dragon Dicing Saber

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Kingdom of Scotland, Lothian, Edinburgh, Palace of Holyroodhouse

[Hey Dipshit,

Read this letter in private. Otherwise, your loyal ministers and subjects will learn that their almighty Emperor, their heaven, answers to his thirteenth concubine.

I know you have always envied my chivalry, or martial spirit, whatever you choose to call it, ever since you first heard of it. Here is your chance to have it.

Let my brother take my children back to my homeland and raise them as his own. In exchange, I will forge my chivalry into a saber through witchcraft, using my life as a sacrifice. Such that whoever wields it will be able to use its power alongside their own. Pass it down as an heirloom to your descendants, if you wish. I do not care what becomes of it, so long as my daughters are allowed to live full lives and die of old age.

You know where to find me.

Corey Stuart,

Princess of Scots.

P.S. If you refuse, I will annihilate your entire family tonight and give birth to my daughters by sunrise.]

”No. I refuse to believe it. A concubine would never write a letter like that. In Zhongguo, they submit a Memorial of Prostration and Supplication when addressing the Emperor. You are lying,” Reven refused to believe Martha, fixating on the formality, clinging to the technicality. In truth, she was stalling, unwilling to confront the reality that their mother had died so they could live.

Coryn, who had nearly convinced herself that Martha was telling the truth loving their mother’s style, snapped out of the thought and cast her a skeptical look.

”I’m not lying. I was there when King James handed the letter to the Emperor. I only read it because that buffoon, in a fit of rage, complained about the princess to the young King because he could confide about this to any one but King James.”

Martha’s voice rose sharply.

”What you girls need to understand is this. Your mother, Princess Corey, was the strongest knight the Seven Seas had ever known. God showed this world mercy by denying her any ambition for conquest. If she had desired a crown instead of peace, the world would have drowned in blood long ago.”

She was shouting now, unable to bear the way the twins spoke of Princess Corey as though she had been just another concubine inside Emperor Long’s phoenix-red palace walls.

Calming herself, she continued, ”Princess Corey was unmatched. No one could force her into anything. That is why it still astonishes me that she agreed to marry and bear you two with that blasphemous old man in the east who dares to call himself Heaven.”

”Wait. If she was the strongest, why would the kingdom send her to the Empire?” Coryn asked, clearly confused. In a society where strength was valued above all else, people would fight to keep their strongest by their side, not offer that power up to another throne. It made no sense to her.

”That’s because she was too strong,” Martha replied with a sigh. That answer only confused Coryn further, until her twin spoke, ”She was far too strong for the kingdom to control. She had become a variable in their political calculus. Her power elevated their position, yes, but it also threatened to overshadow their authority. Their ambitions depended on directing strength, not being subject to it.”

She continued, explaining with a steady and detached voice, ”She was a single individual. At best, they could use her as a very powerful deterrent. But the moment her interests diverged from theirs, she would become a liability. So when an opportunity arose to trade her for something substantial and far easier to manage, they did not hesitate.”

”Why did she negotiate with the Emperor, trading her life and chivalry so that we could live?” Coryn’s voice tightened. ”If she were that strong, couldn’t she have simply killed anyone who came to take us from her?” She struggled to reconcile the image of an invincible knight with that of a mother writing a letter of negotiation to a ruler who supposedly feared her.

”Didn’t I already say it remains a mystery?” Martha replied. ”Most knights in the kingdom believed her strength isolated her, that the loneliness eventually wore her down and she chose to give up on her life. I never believed that. Someone that strong does not crumble so easily. The truth is, no one knew what was happening in her mind.”

Martha had long since stopped trying to decipher Princess Corey’s choices, believing they were people from two different worlds. Only those in Princess Corey’s power-level would understand her choices.

Reven stepped past the uncertainty. ”So our mother’s chivalry... it’s a saber now?”

”Yes. It’s called the Dragon Dicing Saber.” Martha nodded sadly, then let out a faint chuckle. ”Princess Corey’s chivalry was so powerful that the Emperor nearly killed himself trying to wield it.”

She folded her arms and added with a frown, ”Once they realized the Dragon Dicing Saber was too much for even the strongest martial artist in their family, the Zhongguo royal family locked it away in their treasury. Every five years, they bring it out and allow descendants with royal blood, direct or indirect, to attempt to wield it. They call it a test of compatibility. Still no one succeeded.”

Her gaze drifted, as if calculating something before informing, ”If I remember correctly, the next trial should take place in about a month.”

As they listened to Martha, the twins exchanged a silent look before turning toward the exit of the training hall. Martha caught it instantly. She had served as their personal maid for their entire lives. She knew that look. It meant they had reached a decision that neither she nor King James would approve. Without even asking what they were planning, she hurried after them. Experience had taught her one thing about them: whenever they exchanged that look nothing good had come out of it. She called out urgently, ”Your Highnesses, please, stop and think this through for a moment.”