Card Apprentice Daily Log

Chapter 3079: Princess Lyra Heatsend

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Five Regions, Southern Region, Blossom District, Sky Blossom City

“Same as you?” Lorn uttered, clearly struggling to compare the unruly Corey with me. Yet, she couldn’t deny the underlying truth. Corey was the only person in my age group who could keep up with me on her own.

Lorn, who had been unmatched among her own generation, understood better than most what it meant to stand alone at the pinnacle. Strength could become its own kind of isolation when there was no one around who could truly walk beside you.

She let out a quiet sigh, remarking, “Lucky you, I guess.”

“Lucky? Really?” I played along with Lorn’s interpretation of my words. “She’s a handful.”

Lorn nodded, seemingly satisfied with that explanation, “At least with her around, not a day will be boring.”

I chuckled. She had no idea just how right she was.

Lorn’s tone turned stern as she dragged the conversation back to the matter she had clearly been brooding over, “Wyatt, I still think you were hasty in announcing the Unranked Grimoires. You just handed the Masters a very attractive reason to unite the entire Card Apprentice community against you and the New Empire. You’re repeating the same mistake Henricks and the Freedom Fighters made with Silver Milk Powder.”

I stopped just before entering Aqualas’s Ocean World and turned around to face her. Our eyes met and I calmly said, “I can understand how you came to that conclusion. But you’re wrong about one thing. Unranked Grimoires are far more valuable and attractive to powerful Card Apprentices than Silver Milk Powder. Which makes your concerns unnecessary.”

Lorn’s expression immediately changed. She stared at me for a moment, clearly wondering whether I had accidentally said the exact opposite of what I meant.

“What?” she exclaimed. “Shouldn’t we be worried precisely because they’re too attractive to ignore?”

Looking past Lorn, I suddenly ordered, “Peyote, let him through.”

Lorn didn’t need to follow my gaze.

She had already sensed the familiar presence approaching from behind her.

When she turned, a tall, gray-haired old man stood there. Despite his age, he possessed a lean, muscular build that made the simple linen clothes hanging from his frame look almost deliberate. His weathered face was handsome in a rugged, old-fashioned way, earning him the reputation of being one of the most distinguished-looking geezers in the Five Regions.

Lorn’s lips curled into a grin remarking, “Dyke. I should have known the news about Unranked Grimoires would drag your ass out of whichever cave you’ve been hiding in.”

The old man chuckled. This was Demigod Dyke, the renowned number-one Mythical Card Creationist of the Five Regions.

His mastery of card creation was believed to be unmatched until I appeared, but his reputation wasn’t built entirely on his accomplishments.

He was equally famous for rejecting marriage proposals from the Southern Royal Family, the other three royal families, and several powerful noble clans from the Central Region.

All of them had tried to secure his allegiance through marriage, hoping to tie one of the greatest card creationists of the generation to their bloodline.

He rejected every single proposal. Yet his rejection of the Southern Royal Family was the one that had become infamous. The proposal had involved Princess Lyra Heatsend, the young Lorn herself. Thanks to Dyke’s simple but brutal response: ‘I don’t dare marry that man-eater.’

The words had spread through the Five Regions like wildfire. And, naturally, young Lorn had taken the insult personally. She had spent years hunting the bastard across the Five Regions, determined to reclaim her honor.

She never caught him. Dyke had apparently considered staying alive to be a perfectly reasonable countermeasure. Eventually, time cooled Lorn’s anger. She went on to marry Lorenzo, the budding Array Formation genius and the right hand and closest friend of her brother, the Southern Heir.

Dyke, meanwhile, continued wandering from place to place, creating cards, avoiding royal families, and generally behaving like a man who had discovered the secret to longevity was simply refusing to get involved in other people’s problems. Until now. Apparently, the news of Unranked Grimoires had finally been tempting enough to drag him out of hiding.

The old man’s gaze shifted between Lorn and me before narrowing suspiciously, “Lyra, I didn’t expect to run into you here of all places, especially at this particular time. Don’t tell me the whole Unranked Grimoire announcement was just a lie to drag me out of hiding?”

“Yes. I blame myself for not thinking of it sooner.” Lorn didn’t even blink. She delivered the lie so smoothly that even I almost admired it. Inside, however, she was probably using every ounce of self-control she possessed to stop herself from rolling her eyes at his narcissistic ass. Her smile widened as she added, “At least now I finally get to rip that sharp tongue out of your mouth.”

Dyke’s expression stiffened. Unfortunately for Lorn, I wasn’t about to let her settle an old grudge. I summoned my Unranked Grimoire and gestured toward Lorn, proposing, “She has one too. You can kill one of us and take the dropped Unranked Grimoire…”

I paused to use my storage card. One after another, Unranked Grimoires appeared. Placing them on display, their crystal covers shimmering with rainbow hues as they accumulated before us, I began again, “Or you can work for the New Empire and earn enough merits to redeem one yourself.”

Demigod Dyke’s eyes widened. There weren’t one, two, but enough Unranked Grimoires sitting before him to make the number one card creationist in five regions question whether he had somehow wandered into a treasure vault.

I looked directly at him, “The choice is yours.”

Beside me, Lorn’s head snapped toward me. Her starry eyes widened as realization finally struck. She understood what I had meant earlier. Why I wasn’t worried about the Unranked Grimoires becoming too attractive. Why I had deliberately made the reward public.

I wasn’t dangling a single priceless treasure in front of the Card World. I had a supply. And if someone wanted one badly enough, they didn’t need to attack the New Empire, there was a simpler way. They could simply earn it. Lorn felt a wave of relief. At least I had a plan, though she still thought the way I was executing that plan was reckless as hell.