Date: Unspecified
Ti: Unspecified
Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Central Region, Central Academic City, Morningstar University District, Brothwork Manor
"Well, well... look who finally arrived—the scandalous couple of the year!"
A cutting voice sliced through our mont. Jill and I turned to see a blond man standing behind us, dressed in a white tux with a pink shirt and a red bow tie, a cocktail balanced casually in his hand.
"Drew, get lost," Jill snapped. The smile on his face faltered for a heartbeat before returning as he said, still grinning, "Aren’t you going to introduce your one and only friend to your brother-in-law?"
Jill, who had been a mont away from driving Drew off, froze the instant she heard him call brother-in-law. With a reluctant smile, she finally introduced us, "Wyatt, this is Drew Rockin—my ex–business partner."
"Ex–business partner?" Drew echoed in theatrical shock. "Wow, Jill. Didn’t think you’d turn into one of those people who forget their roots the mont they make it big." He clutched his chest dramatically, playing the victim.
"You know exactly what you did," Jill shot back, giving him no room to save face. Drew let out a long, weary sigh, defending, "Co on, Jill. You know I didn’t have a choice. Unlike you, I’m stuck in this crappy club. And you loved it when I used its connections to help you. You even called the best partner you ever had."
His entire life was dictated by his family, and the one thing he felt he had any real control over was his friendship with Jill. Seeing her still furious with him—despite knowing why he made his choices—left him visibly disappointed. He threw his hands up in frustration, accusing, "But now that I can’t use this identity to benefit you, suddenly I’m an ex-partner? That’s cold. I never thought you could be so ungrateful."
"How dare you call ungrateful? After everything I did for you? And you still chose your little club over ," Jill fired back.
Her anger only made it clearer that she genuinely valued Drew’s friendship—she wouldn’t waste a second arguing with him otherwise, not with standing beside her.
"You did a lot for , sure," Drew said, "but you also charged a premium for every favor—"
He didn’t get far.
"That’s because if I didn’t, you’d never appreciate my help. You take anything free for granted," Jill snapped, cutting him off.
She really was more like than she realized—she wouldn’t lift a finger without charging sothing for it and was incredibly petty. But charging a premium even to a friend? Even I wouldn’t take it that far.
"No, it’s because you’re a money grubber. A total cheapskate," Drew shot back, clearly unmoved by her reasoning.
Both of them looked seconds away from saying sothing they’d regret, so I stepped in.
"Go greet the host first," I said, slipping between them.
I wasn’t here to watch Jill argue with her friend—I was here to launch Fine Gold’s Fairy Sli Cards.
"Wyatt, stay out of this. I need to teach this ungrateful brat a lesson," Jill said, trying to push aside. When she couldn’t budge , she simply climbed over instead, planting herself between us as she glared daggers at Drew.
"Consider this my last lesson to you. This one’s free," she warned, her voice low and fierce, ready to give him a thrashing. They were both Card Emperors, but Jill was already on the verge of forming her divinity, while Drew was still miles from that point. So yes—if I hadn’t stepped in, she absolutely would have taught him a lesson.
I wrapped my left arm firmly around Jill to hold her back, then used my right hand to give Drew a light pat on the back, saying, "You two can sort this out later. For now, take to the host."
Drew took a mont to steady himself and nodded, adding, "Brother-in-law, Brolock isn’t here yet. He’ll only show up about forty-five minutes after everyone else arrives. And considering you whisked away the woman he was after... well, he might make us wait an hour or two."
"But we’re free to help ourselves to the Dream Nymph card samples until he arrives," Drew added. The mont he said it, he felt Jill’s stare burn into the side of his head. He pretended not to notice, acting perfectly innocent.
"Even better," I blurted, glancing around the hall at the guests openly—and shalessly—indulging in Jill’s Dream Nymph cards. These were the richest—and most depraved—people in all five regions. In other words, the perfect target audience for my Sli Fairy cards.
Then I pulled out a stack of starter Sli Fairy cards and turned to Drew, asking, "Can you do a small favor?"
"Na it," he replied instantly—much too eager to impress his new brother-in-law. Honestly, good thing I held back from slapping him earlier for addressing as his brother-in-law on Jill’s account.
"Keep a few for yourself and hand the rest to the high-value guests. Tell them they’re a gift from Jill," I instructed Drew, passing him the stack of sli fairy cards. Drew skimd one of the cards, brows shooting up in interest, he couldn’t help but ask Jill, "Sli Fairy? I thought the upgraded version was going to be called Dream Nymph 2.0."
Jill, who had no idea what I was planning, was montarily caught off guard. Even so, she played along smoothly. She caught a glimpse of the card info from the corner of her eye and said coolly, "Those pleasure cards were created by Wyatt. They’re the whole reason I’ve been rushing to unload as many Dream Nymph cards as possible. Once his cards hit the market, no one will bother buying mine."
"Give a minute—I’ll unload these and be right back," Drew said, hurrying off into the hall, which honestly looked like one massive, extravagant sex dungeon.
If not for the purifying array continuously cleaning the air and sanitizing everything, I wouldn’t have stepped foot in that place at all.
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