Card Apprentice Daily Log-Chapter 2785: Devil’s Little Bitch!

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Southern Region, Blossom District, Mischief Encampment, Matron’s Camp 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

"What’s wrong?" I asked the Field Marshal, noticing the way her face had turned crimson as she glanced between me and Dredre.

She hesitated, then reluctantly said, "What if Gideon Grim escapes back to his dark faction’s base using the devil merchant code? Wouldn’t Corey be walking straight into a trap?"

Before I could answer, Corey explained, "No, he won’t—unless he doesn’t mind becoming another devil’s little bitch."

"What Corey is trying to say is that the dark faction isn’t a place where you can show weakness," I began to explain. "If you do, the devils will prey on you, even if you’re their comrade—" Corey cut me off before I could finish, saying, "Especially if you’re their comrade. That way, they already know your limits and your background. Park learned that the hard way. You can’t show weakness to the dark races, no matter how good your terms are with them. It’s in their nature—they get off on taking advantage of others."

"So what’s the point of forming a faction?" the Field Marshal asked, unable to understand why anyone would join one if they couldn’t trust the people in it to have their back.

"It’s like a bunch of assholes coming together to defend their piece of the poop from bigger, stinkier assholes," Corey replied, but that only confused the Field Marshal further, even as she tried her best to follow. Corey wasn’t done. "What you’re asking is like wondering why people get married, promising to stay together forever, when one of them can just walk out and file for divorce."

I looked at Corey to see if she was done and she wouldn’t cut me off again, then replied, "It’s not loyalty—it’s convenience. They stand together because it’s safer than standing alone, and they can go after bigger, better pieces of the pie that way. Like that, as a faction, they can aim to conquer a world to mine its will fragments instead of drifting through the Myriad Realms, moving from one world to another as merchants that barely scrape by.

"But the moment you become a liability? You’re no longer part of the faction—you’re the next thing it feeds on. It’s like the saying: there’s no honor among thieves. Though not all dark races are like that. Some are more tolerable than others."

"Yes, but only to their own. Not to others, and especially not to outsiders. Believe me, I know. Park used to run her own faction, and even those who lived because of her generosity saw it as weakness. After her death, they switched sides immediately," Corey said once I was done, making me wonder why she was suddenly bringing up Park today. But she wasn’t wrong. There was a reason most Semi-Ruler and Ruler-class factions were run by families or clans.

Just then, I caught the Field Marshal staring at Dredre again and once again her face couldn’t help but turn tomato red. The latter had finished her fill of nuts and flown back to perch on my hair, her legs dangling over my forehead.

So I asked the Field Marshal again, "Alright, what’s wrong? Spit it out already."

Field Marshal Lorn’s face turned tomato red before she said, "It’s about Elder Pixie MayMay. She couldn’t reach you through the devil codex, so she asked me to pass along a message—"

"No, not here. Not now. We’ll talk later," I cut her off the moment I realized it was about Elder Pixie MayMay and that she had sent me a message. There was a reason I had been ignoring her messages on my demon codex—they were so randy that I was disgusted by myself for corrupting an innocent soul. I can’t help it, I am a hybrid World Calamity tree and Pixies were attracted to despite their better judgement.

Now I understood why the Field Marshal’s face kept turning crimson every time she looked at me and Dredre together. Hopely, MayMay had the sense to show some discretion in message. But from the Field Marshal’s reaction, I don’t think that was the case.

Catching the embarrassment on my face, Corey immediately pressed, "What is it? Who is Elder Pixie MayMay? And where did you even meet an Elder Pixie in the first place? Park visited plenty of Infinity Library branches in the dark realm and never met one."

Hearing there was an older, stronger version of pixies, Lil’ Baem—who had been pretending to sleep—couldn’t help but lift her head to listen as I answered her master.

Seeing how intently she was listening, I scoffed. "What are you getting excited about? You were defeated by Dredre. What makes you think you can handle an Elder Pixie—the guardian of pixies? Go back to sleep."

"Hiss!" Lil’ Baem bared her fangs at me, her eyes flashing like Dredre’s as she perched on my hair. Clearly, she hadn’t learned her lesson. If Corey wasn’t here—or even looking—she would’ve already pounced on Dredre to try her luck again. Greedy pig would be a more fitting title than sinister snake for her.

"Wyatt, stop provoking her. Don’t come complaining to me if she bites you," Corey said, coming to her baby snake’s defense.

Lil’ Baem rubbed her head affectionately against Corey’s wrist, occasionally flicking it toward me as if pointing me out. Even an elven year could tell she was complaining about me to her mama. Unfortunately for her, she was barking up the wrong tree.

Just then, an eerie floating appeared in the camp out of thin air—it was Nick and his empty beast. The creature opened its mouth and produced a cushion, giving it to Sansa, it vanished from sight as if it had never existed.

Sansa took the cushion and handed it to Corey, saying, "According to my people, this was one of the cushions Gideon used while cultivating his active soul percentage in his hideout, about a hundred miles south of here. Check if it works. Otherwise, we’ll need to get our hands on something better than a cushion he actually sat on."

Corey took the cushion and held it in front of Lil’ Baem. "Baem, see if you can track a person using the traces of his smell on this."