Card Apprentice Daily Log Chapter 2709: New Age Merchant Guild

Date: Unspecified

Ti: Unspecified

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

"You an... like otherworld rcenaries?" Corey asked, not wasting a second. The question caught the saintess off guard, as she had half expected Corey to curse her, to accuse her of being a demon-worshipper or a sympathizer. Instead, Corey actually got her. Thanks to Park’s mories, Corey was far more open-minded than most card apprentices and instantly understood what the latter was getting at.

"Or is it sothing else?" Corey pressed when the Saintess failed to respond. The latter was taken aback by the sheer range of Corey’s imagination– Otherworld rcenaries –She could not have phrased it more precisely herself.

"No, no, you can call them otherworld rcenaries," the Saintess hurriedly said. She thought it was going to be hard for her to explain herself, but this made it easy. Then, she could help but wonder, "Wait, did you guys co in contact with beings from other worlds?"

Knowing Henricks’s abilities, the Saintess could not help but wonder if they had already established contact with beings from another world. That possibility lingered in her thoughts and seed the most plausible explanation for Corey’s unusual open-mindedness about beings from other realms.

"Saintess, you are not here to interrogate us. You are here to explain why we should ally," I said, cutting in before Corey could speak.

I had intended to sit back and let Corey handle this eting. That had been the plan. But the mont the Saintess ntioned beings from another world, that option disappeared. I needed clarity.

The ’Seven Princes of Hell’ dark factions were already enough of a headache. If another faction had been eyeing the card world, I wanted to know as early as possible.

The Saintess was not offended by my remark. On the contrary, she seed almost pleased. For the first ti since the eting began, she not only had my full attention but my interest as well.

Now that she had exactly where she wanted, she did not waste the opportunity.

"There is an inter-realm rchant guild composed of powerful beings from different worlds," she began. "They primarily engage in inter-realm trade, though they occasionally undertake rcenary work. His Highness, Demigod Godson, maintained a strong friendship with them. He intended for his descendants to preserve that alliance. As such, he left behind the guild’s rchant token."

She paused briefly before continuing, "His Highness Pax has already used that token to establish contact and formally join the rchant guild. We have been trading with them for quite so ti now. Recently, they have offered to assist us with our current situation."

"If you already have everything figured out, why do you want to ally with us?" Corey asked, studying the Saintess carefully, trying to determine what she stood to gain by proposing an alliance with soone who had just been declared the world terrorist.

Unlike her boss, Corey was operating with incomplete information. She had no idea that the Emissary of Light was pursuing the Saintess and Pax Godson as well. In her view, the Saintess had likely approached them because she was just as concerned about Sky Blossom City as Corey was.

Still, Corey was not naïve. It took her a while, but she understood that whatever friendship Demigod Godson once shared with that inter-realm rchant guild had been forged long ago. Ti erodes even the strongest alliances. If the Saintess intended to hire them as rcenaries, they would not act out of goodwill. They would demand a price steep enough for her to reach out to her boss, the richest individual in the entire card world. And as it so happens, he too loved this just as much as her.

Before Corey could voice the realization forming in her mind, the Saintess answered her first.

"The price they are demanding is too steep for us to bear alone," she explained, eyeing . "However, if the world’s richest individual were to sponsor us, that would change the equation entirely."

"Before we discuss this any further, can you show the token of this inter-realm rchant guild? An image will suffice," I said, intent on confirming a growing hunch.

The Saintess regarded with visible doubt. My request was far too specific. If I rely wanted information about the inter-realm rchant guild, I would have asked her to elaborate. Instead, I had asked to see the rchant token itself.

After a brief pause, she seed to decide the demand was harmless. Without further comnt, she used her grimoire and materialized a clear image of the inter-realm rchant guild’s rchant token in the air before us.

It was a coin-shaped obsidian token. Along its outer ring, the na of the guild, New Age rchant Guild, was inscribed with gold in a precise circular script. At its center rested a symbol, engraved in gold, one that imdiately drew my attention because of its familiarity.

"That’s a devil rchant quota," Corey exclaid, recognizing it at once. The token felt familiar because it was a customized devil rchant quota.

Among Dark Guilds, it was common practice to pool the rchant quotas of their mbers every decade and reforge them into customized tokens. These were then granted to promising recruits. Once the recipient chose to join the devil rchant code as a demon or devil rchant using that quota, they would automatically beco a mber of the issuing guild.

Corey turned to abruptly, shock written plainly across her face. She slapped my arm and grabbed it, as if to steady herself, blurting, "Wyatt, Pax is the unknown demon rchant we’ve been looking for. He was right next to us all this ti."

A realization struck Corey so suddenly that she blurted it out before she could restrain herself.

"Wait... does that an Demigod Micheal Angelo Godson was a Devil rchant?"

"How dare you slander His Highness," the Saintess snapped at once, her composure cracking for the first ti. "This has nothing to do with devil rchants."

Her voice carried sharp indignation. It was clear she was defending her lord’s honor on instinct alone, triggered by the word Devil rchant. She had no understanding of the context behind our exchange, nor what conclusions we had drawn from the image of the token.