Card Apprentice Daily Log

Date 20 Mar 2321

Time 2:05

Location Sky Blossom City, Adventure Guild Association, Administrators Office

Opening his silver grimoire Oliver Bright made a call, 

"John! You are slipping, it's been 35 minutes since the auction ended! Where's the update? How's the situation? What about my niece?"

"Sir, I was just about to call you! The situation is nothing like I guessed, that girl came up with those cards and the auction was a huge success, it appears we played a huge role in that and helped her gain huge popularity along with a large number of clientele.

As for the young miss, she just wanted to apologize to the girl and nothing else. It seems she resigned from the permanent guild staff and applied to work under the girl. These actions are unlike young miss but I guess young miss has changed. 

Sir, should we continue as planned?"

"There is no need to continue with the plan since the girl has proved her prowess as associate auction manager, then let her fill in the shoes. 

All this for nothing, it's better to be prepared than be sitting ducks, I had a scare there!"

Even though the thing with Susan wasn't a big deal for a prominent family like the Brights but things related to Corey Bright are always complicated, as she is the heart of the Bright family patriarch and matriarch. For some reason when it comes to Corey Bright they seem to lose all reason and common sense. 

Therefore Oliver chose to be prepared then sit cluelessly by for this matter, thankfully it was nothing but a scare. His niece and things related to her can be hard to deal with, for 13 years all she wanted to be was an idol but all of sudden she asked to work at the association mall, so he chose an associate auction manager post for her but then she says she wants to start from the bottom. So, he offered her a permanent staff post and yet she resigned and went to work under an ant. 

The Bright family Princess working under someone else the old people were going to flip. 

'Beep! Beep!... '

"Bright family meeting! Who sent it? Corey! What is it about this time? Is it about me! X X, niece do you want to murder your uncle?"

Calling a family meeting is a privilege that only the elder generation of the family may use without consequences! Others can also use it, only if it is the matter of life and death for the Bright family. 

But Corey is different, she can call a family meeting without consequences too, as the elder generation consider her as the life of the family. 

The last time an elder called for a family meeting was when his elder brother was going to upgrade his grimoire to gold grade. 

As for the last Bright family meeting it was called by Corey because she wasn't able to find any good heels to wear. 

… 

Date 20 Mar 2321

Time 2:01

Location Sky Blossom City, Adventure Guild Association, Auction House

Leaving the auction hall Corey headed home and called for a family meeting. 

She did not want to use it but, seeing how her decisions can affect others, she decided to. This time it all worked out in the end but she will not be so lucky next time. 

Corey had not just received the memories of her past life but also the emotions, feelings and thoughts of the past life through her origin card, which made her almost forget herself and drown in the agony faced by the past life Corey. 

It took Corey almost a day to separate herself from all those emotions, feelings and thoughts that came with the memories. Thankfully it was a card ability but not actual relife. She lived the past life memories as a third person, it was just like watching a very realistic movie, otherwise, she would face a serious identity crisis right now. 

Corey noticed that her past-self and current-self personality is almost a xerox copy but their social status and economical state were different. Her past self was a single parent poor ant and her current self is the swan of the prominent Bright family. Her past self was a loser with no talent but the current self is a genius who directly contracted a silver grimoire. 

This experience was not something Corey could just shake off and continue with her life, she was shaken to the core, she had nightmares and sometimes unknowingly tears would flow from her eye's. 

Over time her whole perspective over life changed drastically, 

Her beauty that she was proud of and admired for hours standing in front of the mirror suddenly doesn't seem to matter anymore. 

All her expensive private collections of fancy dresses, shoes and jewellery appeared worthless in her eyes. 

Her school and social media life felt superfluous to her, all the likes and comments to her posts didn't seem to matter anymore and all her friends seemed fake to her. 

It seems these days she had nothing to be happy about, everything seemed colourless, the wind she breathed wasn't fresh enough, the food she ate was bland. 

One by one everything she valued started to seem redundant to her, then she started to question herself, what is she living for? What is life? 

She searched for the meaning of her life in the expensive clothing, shoes, jewellery and accessories or the likes and comments she got for her posts like she always did, but it was to no end there was this empty hole in her heart that didn't seem to be filled with any amount of lavish articles of clothing or the likes and comments. 

She couldn't sleep anymore, even if she slept she would wake in an hour. Unable to sleep one night she walked around the manor. 

Walking around the manor she reached the servant quarters, where a bunch of young maids were happily having their dinner and enjoying themselves. 

Looking at them, she asked herself, what are they happy about? All they do is labour and slave around the whole day, what are they happy about? is it the food. The food they eat is not nearly as good as hers yet they seem to be enjoying it. 

Seeing Corey the young maids stopped eating and greeted her. Corey walked to them and reached for the bread on the dinner table but a maid hastily said" Miss if you are hungry I can ask the chef to prepare something you want!."

"I want this," said Corey holding the brown bread, breaking a small piece of bread she ate it even though it didn't taste that bad but it was nothing compared to the bread she had every day and yet somehow these maids seem to enjoy the meal. 

Seeing the actions of young miss the maids panicked but they couldn't do a thing but watch silently. Returning the bread Corey looked at the young maids and asked "how does the bread taste? Don't you dare lie to me?" 

"Miss it tastes better than the ones we get on the streets and we enjoy eating it." Said the head maid and the rest nodded in unison. 

"You mean that the taste of the bread can be worse than this?" Asked Corey with a surprised expression. 

The young maids were dumbfounded hearing the question of the young miss, then the head maid said, "Miss, the bread in the manor is made by the card apprentice cook so it is way better than what we get on streets."

"Oh! I see." Said Corey and asked again " do you guys enjoy the food in the manor?"

Seeing the young miss show interest in their well being the maids were touched and before the head maid could answer Corey an eager maid said, " Manor's food is the best food I have ever tasted young miss, I am really happy to work here."

Hearing the enthusiasm in the young maid's voice while speaking about the food provided in the manor, Corey felt a yearning in her heart, she yearned for what the young maid had, the enthusiasm and pure enjoyment when she spoke about the food. she yearned for it and wanted to feel like that about something in her life.

The maid was so full of enthusiasm even after toiling around for the whole day, why is it so? 

That maid reminded her of someone, yes her previous life mother. She seemed to have the same enthusiasm towards life even after being through so much hardship. 

When the past Corey asked her mother, why so? She said, "Life is not about luxurious cars, fancy houses, expensive clothes etc you young people have been misled by today's media, it's about living it. Life is to live, nothing more nothing less. Live it to your fullest. The hardship and pain that comes along is part of it, without it, you can't appreciate your life. 

Take you, for example, I have never let you near any hardship or pain therefore you don't know how to appreciate your life and always keep complaining about my cooking. 

Let me tell you a secret, 'hard-earned food is always tastier than any food out there' "

When the past Corey realized the truth behind these words it was already too late. 

Remembering all these memories tears started to flow from Corey's eyes. Suddenly she realized that no matter how much she denied it she and her past life counterpart are the same, there is no denying it. 

Fully giving into the memories Corey thought, 

"Mom helps me with the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."

With this Corey finally decided to live the life her mom wanted for her to live, an independent and self-made life of her own based on honesty and hard work. 

Seeing Corey cry the young maids were flustered and did not know what to do? They thought for sure they would have to find new jobs soon. 

But to their astonishment, Corey wiped her tears and said "thank you..thank you for all your hard work, please enjoy your supper. I will take my leave now."

… 

Date 20 Mar 2321

Time 2:30

Location Sky Blossom City, Bright Manor, Main Hall

The main hall was filled with nearly 20 to 30 people, they were all the members of the main family that happened to be present in sky blossom city. 

"Where is Corey? Why isn't she here? What is it about this time?" Asked an alluring middle-aged woman. 

"You can wait, she will be here when she can!" Said the patriarch William Bright. 

"But father in law don't you think this has gone too far... " Before the middle-aged woman could finish Oliver intervened and said, "Wife, niece will be here soon." While narrowing his eyes, signalling her not to continuing further. 

The middle-aged woman snorted and didn't speak anymore. 

Corey entered the main hall and greeted everyone, "Hello grandpa, second grandpa, uncles, aunts and cousins. Sorry for troubling you at such short notice.

I have decided to live an honest life based on my ability and skills. So, I will be moving out to Guild association staff quarters."

"What!"

"What is this all about? Is your pocket money not enough? Tell grandpa I will increase it. You don't have to work, for that we have these morons here." Said William without caring for the feeling of the other family members. 

"No, grandpa it's not about money it's something I have to do on my own. Please understand"

"I respect your decision, but I will be moving in with you. Don't worry grandpa will pitch in for my part of rent and utilities."

"But grandpa. .. "

"End of discussion, there is no way I will let my beautiful granddaughter live alone in this big city. If you move out of the house then grandpa will move out with you. "

Both grandfather and granddaughter pair reached an agreement while the rest of the family members thought 'If you guys are just going to decide on everything by yourself then why did you bother calling a family meeting.'