Card Apprentice Daily Log

Chapter 2716: Despair And Corruption

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

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

”This is too much, I won’t let these guys get away with this,” Pax shouted, indignation flaring in his voice. He could not believe that the place he once thought of as a haven was nothing more than hell disguised as paradise, waiting to swallow him whole.

”What do I do, Master Wyatt?” Pax asked, uncertain how to proceed.

He knew the strength of the guild’s senior management. Even their mid-level executives were stronger than the best the card world had to offer. Most of these executives stood in the upper noble class of the Devil Realm, while his world’s power ceiling barely reached the chivalry class. Only a rare few could break through to the semi-noble class. Without the World Will’s suppression, his world would not stand a chance against a full invasion with the guild leaders having to participate.

So how was he, alone, supposed to make them pay for even trying? He began to sink into despair again as he considered the consequences of accepting or rejecting the guild’s invitation to their headquarters in the physical plane.

He had carried the invitation for a week without giving it much thought. Now, knowing the conspiracy behind it, the parchment felt different in his hands. It was no longer an invitation. It was a guillotine suspended above his neck.

For the first time, he truly understood why his ancestor, Demigod Godson, had been hailed as supreme among so many capable allies.

”About what?” I asked, wanting to understand what he needed from me and how he expected me to help. After all, being over indulgent always has a way of back firing.

”For now... the guild’s invitation to their headquarters in the physical plane,” Pax said and then voiced the fear he had been holding back, ”Now that I know what they might be planning, I don’t want to accept the invitation. But if your assumptions are correct, and I really am important to their plans, then what’s stopping them from coming to the Card World directly to brainwash me here... or worse?”

”Don’t worry. They can’t just come to the Card World. Except for native devil or demon merchants of the Card World, no one can use the Devil Merchant Code to travel here without the ’Seven Princes of Hell’ faction’s permission,” I explained to Pax that his worries were baseless and letting that settle I continued explaining what actually he should be truly dispairing about, ”Pax, what you should be worried about are the devil contracts and agreements you automatically signed when you used the New Age Merchant Guild’s token to become a demon merchant. If they ever question your loyalty, all they have to do is invoke one of those clauses. You’d be dead before you even realized what happened.”

”...” Pax stared at me blankly, his mind overloaded as the full weight of it sank in. The New Age Merchant Guild had not even left him a fighting chance.

The more he thought about it, the more he began to understand why his ancestors had never used the guild’s token to become demon merchants. They had been wise enough to stay away from that trap.

Unfortunately, they had not been wise enough to leave a clear warning for their descendants. Or maybe they had. The token had remained unused for generations before it reached his hands. Perhaps that had been the warning. That concluded it, he was the black sheep of the Godson Bloodline.

”Wyatt, what the fuck? Are you trying to scare him and his father to death?” Corey snapped, noticing the despair spreading across Pax, Jack, and the Saintess.

Jack and the Saintess did not understand every detail, but they understood enough. The words demon contract carried their own weight in the Card World after the first demon invasion. That alone was enough to give meaning to everything I had implied to Pax about these circumstances.

The Saintess took it the hardest. Guilt flickered openly across her face. She blamed herself. Her very presence seemed to scream it: I doomed my lord by pushing him onto a path of no return.

”What did I do? I only told the truth as it is,” I acted innocent, glancing at the Saintess.

Yep, this was about her. For a fleeting moment, I wondered if I could use this to persuade her to become my bloodkin. Would she sell her soul to save her lord? From the look in her eyes, it seemed possible. After all, her expression practically screamed that she deserved to be damned.

There was something about nuns that stirred a darker curiosity in people. A saintess took that temptation to another level. Catching myself indulging that line of thought for too long, I reined it in.

”Pax,” I said evenly, ”your situation isn’t hopeless. For now, you will do exactly as I say. If you follow my instructions, you’ll walk out of this alive and free. Do you trust me?”

”Yes, I trust you, Master Wyatt. Besides, I don’t have much choice in this matter, do I?” Pax muttered, his voice heavy with self-pity.

The poor kid had been through too much. Unlike Corey and me, he had no past-life memories or buried experience to guide him through a storm like this.

”Good.” I nodded and continued, ”Do not reject their invitation yet. First, you need to learn the exact location of their headquarters in the physical plane. Once you have that, file an appeal with the Devil Merchant Code against the New Age Merchant Guild. Do it before they suspect you’ve seen through them and move against you.”

I held his gaze to make sure he understood before continuing, ”If you make the appeal first, any devil contract you signed with the guild cannot be enforced against you until the appeal is resolved. As long as the case is pending or under review, they won’t be able to invoke those clauses to harm you.”