Card Apprentice Daily Log

Chapter 2752: Imperial Guard Captains

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Zhongguo (China), Liaodong Province, Shuntian Prefecture, Shenyang City

”No, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Coryn denied even knowing the Kingdom of Scots let alone her relationship with their royal family. Though she was impulsive, she knew the amount of trouble they had stirred up would stink all the way back to their kingdom. The best thing she could do was any connection with the kingdom of Scots and the royal family.

Xie Chen’s expression immediately turned ugly, and suddenly the twins soon felt a powerful suction force pull on them, and they finally understood what he had meant earlier when he said breaking the suction force.

Reacting instantly, they used conjoin on the air in front of them, generating a burst of repulsive force. The counterforce broke the suction and hurled them out of the distorted space.

”Hey, man. What’s the big deal? I thought we were talking this out,” Coryn complained, genuinely surprised that Xie Chen had attacked them without warning.

Martha had warned them that real combat was nothing like the controlled bouts her father taught, or the neat explanations found in books. But this? This was low considering the man before them was an Imperial guard captain.

Xie Chen narrowed his eyes at them, saying, ”With that mouth of yours and that attire, you clearly aren’t a lady from a noble family or a Dame, but some bastard born to a lowly whore. Yet, you clearly lied.”

He studied them carefully, suspicion creeping into his voice, ”Does that mean you are from the Kingdom of Scots? But your name... what are you hiding, Corey the Second?”

”Bastard born to a lowly whore?” Coryn repeated, rage rising in her chest. She couldn’t believe such foul words had come from those beautiful lips. At that moment, all she wanted was to conjoin them into one.

The reason she spoke in street slang was to hide her royal origin for as long as possible. As far as she was concerned, Princess Corey the Second was still back at the inn, and the one standing here was just an imposter. That was the story she had come up with. To her surprise, Reven had agreed with it, saying, as long as we achieve an overwhelming win anything goes.

’Coryn, we’re surrounded,’ Reven informed her twin internally. ’Among them there seems to be an empath-type Chivalry user with long range telepathy. I’ll keep them out. But don’t let his words rattle you.’

Having warned her twin, Reven concentrated on using their mental field, doing everything she could to block the Embroidered Uniform Guards from infiltrating their minds.

Without another word, Coryn launched herself at Xie Chen in an explosive burst of speed the naked eye could barely follow. Through the vision effect of her chivalry, she could see the disturbance in the twin particles in the air before him. She immediately realized he had laid a trap and was waiting for her to rush straight into it.

She immediately changed trajectory mid-flight. Each adjustment came with a sharp burst of force that redirected her path. In a blink, she slipped past the trap and appeared right beside him, just above its edge. Before he could react, Coryn drove a punch into his jaw with the twins’ combined strength. The impact detonated with a sharp crack. His head snapped sideways before his body slammed to the floor. Xie Chen went unconscious instantly.

Coryn crouched beside his unconscious body. With a cold focus, she used Conjoin to roughly set his shattered jaw. The healing was uneven, careless. Then she went further. She fused the tissues of his lips and teeth together, sealing them into a single mass and permanently removing his mouth. After that, she targeted his scalp, conjoining the cells until the follicles collapsed and the tissue disintegrated, leaving him permanently bald. All the while, she kept one eye on the guards rushing toward them.

Ignoring the guards trying to surround her, she rushed toward the inner court at full speed, following the unknown voice that had been calling to them. The palace corridors blurred past as the twins moved with single-minded focus, guided more by instinct than sight.

When they reached the entrance, they found four figures waiting there. Three men and one woman stood before the door, their posture relaxed but alert. Each of them wore the same golden silk embroidered uniform as Xie Chen, marking them as other imperial guard captains of twelve.

Unlike ordinary soldiers, they did not shout or step forward immediately. They remained where they were, guarding the entrance with the quiet confidence of people who did not need to prove their authority.

The twins slowed to a stop a few paces before them. Standing before the heavy doors of the inner court, the sensation and the voice calling to them grew unmistakably strong. Whatever had been calling to them was just behind it. The pull was so clear that it felt almost physical, tugging at their awareness like a thread tied directly to their mind.

For a brief moment, the captains and the twins simply stared at each other. Then the female guard captain broke the silence. She glanced at Coryn before letting out a scoff.

”Look at her. She’s still a novice,” she said. ”And he lost to her.”

She shook her head slightly at the other captains, remarking, ”I told you, Xie Chen, he was too young to be promoted to Imperial Guard Captain, regardless of his chivalry.”

”Captain Lin, you are in the presence of Her Highness, the Seventeenth Princess. Mind your tongue,” the elderly man among the three guards said calmly. Only for Captain Lin to snap back immediately, saying, ”She is no princess of mine.”

These captains seemed to be aware of the twins’ identity. Captain Lin’s gaze hardened as she looked at the twins, remarking harshly, ”Captain Yan, have you forgotten the Emperor’s verdict? I don’t know how she managed to get rid of that freak body of hers, and frankly, I don’t care. But she dared to break into the palace and kill our guards. To me, she is nothing more than my intruder.”

Coryn had no idea that the captains were arguing about her in their native tongue. She could only stare at them impatiently, gauging how to get past them to enter the inner court.