Card Apprentice Daily Log

Chapter 2799: The Foreign Affairs Files

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Southern Region, Blossom District, Three Mischief Encampment, Mystic Dimension

”There is this kid in the Empire... they say he’s the agent of light sent down to clean this cursed world.”

”Yeah, I’ve heard. They call him the Emissary of Light, don’t they?”

”They say the Emissary of Light can’t be defeated by anything evil. Not wounded, not worn down. Evil just... fails against him.”

”And it’s not just that. They say he won’t die until his purpose is fulfilled. Not ’hard to kill’—he literally won’t. It’s like the world itself refuses to let him fall before the job’s done.”

”I’ve heard worse. His defense isn’t just tough—it rejects damage altogether. Blades, spells, curses... they damage him. It’s like the idea of harm doesn’t exist when it comes to him.”

”They say wounds don’t stick to him. Even if you somehow get through, the damage rewinds, like time itself second-guesses hurting him.”

”So you can’t beat him with evil, can’t kill him before his mission ends, and can’t even injure him properly...”

”There’s more. People say light answers him. Not just elements—light itself. He doesn’t cast it, he commands it. Every ray becomes his blade, every glow his eyes.”

”I’ve heard he can heal any wound and cure any disease. Doesn’t matter if it’s steel, poison, or some cursed rot—it all gets wiped clean under his light.”

”They say if you chant his name, it steadies you. Fear dulls, your mind clears, and your body just... pushes past its limits. Some even claim it helps people break through to higher realms.”

”I’ve heard he guides people in the dark. Not with a voice or anything—you just get this instinct, like you suddenly know which step won’t kill you.”

”And if his name is still ringing in your ears, evil can’t touch you. Not because it won’t try—it just... fails to reach you, like something’s blocking it.”

”They say lost travelers don’t stay lost if they remember him. Roads show up where there shouldn’t be any, and dead ends stop being dead ends.”

”I heard even fear doesn’t behave right around him. It doesn’t disappear, but it loses its grip, like it can’t fully settle in your chest.”

”And lies don’t hold up near him either. People try to twist the truth, but something about his presence makes it slip out straight.”

”I’ve heard shadows betray you around him. Try to hide, and the darkness peels away like it’s scared to be caught helping you.”

”...Then what exactly is he fighting for?”

”That’s the part no one agrees on. Some say he’s here to purge demons. Others say he’s here to erase anything the light deems ’impure’.”

Several decades ago, rumors about a miraculous kid began to pour into the Southern Region from across the border it shared with the Empire. These rumors were so rampant that they even reached the Southern Capital and the ears of the Southern Ruler. He dismissed them as exaggerated propaganda, but one minister in his court didn’t.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Southern Princess, dug into those rumors and found that they didn’t originate from the truth, but became the truth. They say there can’t be smoke without fire, but in this case, the smoke started the fire.

Taking note of this oddity, the Southern Princess looked into the one thing all these rumors had in common: the Emissary of Light. She opened a top-secret investigation into the kid and found some alarming hints about his origin card. Combined with the rampant rumors flooding into the Southern Region from their shared border, she realized what was happening.

With her hands tied by diplomatic relations, she decided to fight rumors with rumors and began to manipulate them subtly, such that even the Emissary of Light wouldn’t know what was happening, as she created chinks in the godly image he was building for himself. This way, if he were ever to set his sights on the Southern Region, or the Five Regions for that matter, they could use it against him.

She had her agents within the Empire make citizens ask the difficult questions that would define the Emissary of Light’s exaggerated rumors and turn them into a truth within limits—realistic and grounded limits.

”Then what happens when all that runs into the Card World itself? I mean, the World Will.”

”Yeah. So tell me—who’s stronger? The Card World’s Will or the Emissary of Light?”

”And his defense—does it even apply to the World Will? Or is that the one thing that can actually harm him?”

”Right. Because rejecting damage is one thing... but can he reject a punishment issued by the world itself?”

”Then where is all that power even coming from?”

”It has to do with the World Will. Where else could he get that power—from the demon realm?”

”Exactly. Which brings up the bigger question—what’s his purpose?”

”And here’s the real problem—if the Card World decides he has to die, what happens then?”

”...then what happens if his purpose and the world’s will don’t align?”

Just like that, the godly image the Emissary of Light was planning to create for himself by using the people’s blind faith through rumors was deemed weaker than the Card World’s Will by the people, through rumors shaped by their belief that everything exists because of the Will of the Card World.

This way, the Southern Princess forced the Emissary of Light, who was planning to become equal to or even stronger than the Card World’s Will using the faith of its creations, to scrap his plan and instead take the mantle of the herald of the Card World, and later attempt to become the true son of the Card World.

Without the Emissary of Light realizing it, the Southern Princess forced him to limit his own origin card, making him think that it was constrained by the perception of the people. If people could not imagine something more powerful than the Card World, then no amount of faith points would help make it come true.

However, the truth was not that people couldn’t imagine it—it was that the Southern Princess grounded their imagination to their perception of the reality. The Emissary of Light never realized this until his fight with the Field Marshal.