Card Apprentice Daily Log

Date- 28 Mar 2321

Time- 18:41

Location- Sky Blossom City, Guild Association Mall, Warehouse no.234

Right now, I am in a predicament. I did not want to add Corey to my workforce because she didn't respect me. And her prejudice against me would only lead to insubordination. Susan and I were a team, and we handled our part of the work perfectly. But adding a Corey to the group would only slow down the efficiency of our team. I know Susan knows this and yet recommends me to hire Corey. I wanted to overlook Susan's recommendation, but this was the first thing Susan had asked from me. Hence, my dilemma. 

"Fine, I will hire her. But at the first sign of insubordination or smart mouth-sary, I will fire her ass faster than lighting a gas. So she is still on probation. If she proves to be a good asset to our card boutique, then we can discuss her job status." I chose to trust Susan and decided to give Corey another shot. I hope the probation period is enough to put Corey on her toes. Otherwise, I will just make it clear to her that she is too good for my little card boutique. 

"Don't worry, boss, you will regret… not regret your decision. FYI I am not shy of reporting workplace harassment." Corey was being deliberate with her words. What was I thinking? She wouldn't change just because of a probationary status behind her job title. 

"Wyatt, leave her to me. I will handle her. I have arranged all the ingredients you mentioned in the ingredient list in the card lab. Will you be creating the cards tonight?" I looked at Susan suspiciously, was she trying to cover for Corey by changing the topic? No, this is not the professional Susan I know. 

"No, I am not. Something just came up. I will be busy dealing with that, so mass production of the Nanomorpher cards will have to wait until a later date." Right now, I was more concerned about creating runes and getting my calamity daughter gems to comprehend Blood rule and forge runes. So emptying the stock of liquid spirit gold on the warehouse selves took less priority. 

"I see. But I do not think we need to push the creation of the cards to a later date. We have another card creationist in our time. Let Corey deal with the small stuff like this one. You're the boss. You cannot just tend to all the work around here. Share some with Corey. I am sure she has a profound knowledge of Card creation and is proficient enough to create the nanomorpher cards you were planning to mass-produce." Made some valid points. Now that I had a second card creationist in the group, I should share some of the workload with her.

"No, that won't work. My card recipe and creation techniques are very different from those mentioned in the textbooks. Corey cannot help me in the mass-production of these cards." Despite how valid and tempting Susan's advice sounded, I could not put them to work. Because I finally remembered why I did not plan on expanding my card boutique or just patenting my card recipes. 

Most of my card recipes are based on my esoteric knowledge of science and technology. When it came to the creation process, I did not use the basic techniques taught in the card creation textbook and was heavily dependent on my soul pupils. Therefore I could not recruit any outside help in the mass-production nanomorphers. 

"You sure a talented and confident card creationist like Cortney can be of no help to you?" Susan stressed her words as she spoke. 

"...." It felt like she was hinting at something, but I could not understand what it was. 

"For, the love of god! Give this stuck-up and overconfident brat some grunt work. Is that hard to understand? What part of my words wasn't clear enough? Drown her ass with so much work that she understands how hard it is to make a livelihood. And help her understand the concept of hard-earned money." Seeing me not take the hint, Susan broke the mask covering her face and screamed, 'teach this spoiled brat a lesson.' 

"Say what?...." Susan's words dumbfounded not just me, Anna, Luna, and Cortney. 

"Big sis….?" Corey was the one who suffered from the greatest shock when Susan stripped her professional mask and let out her true thoughts on having Corey work in our card boutique. 

"Corey, honey… I love you and all, but you are spoiled rotten. And it's about time somebody told you that. I do not know what is happening with you these days, but I hope that the timid yet brave girl that came to me asking to learn from me is still somewhere in you. 

I will bring out that girl even if I have to beat her out of your current pompous little mindset." Having taken the gloves off, Susan went ballistic and gave Corey a piece of her mind. 

"..." Hearing Susan nag her, Corey's eyes become teary, not because she felt betrayed or for other petty reasons. Currently, Susan resembles her past life mother, who would always bottle up her anger, and dissatisfaction caused by Corey's mistakes, and one fine day, those anger and discontent would burst up, and Corey would feel the burnt. But not for long, feeling bad about her outburst he mother would always cave to her pitiful and cute apology. 

As Corey was reminiscing about the past and savoring the new side of her big sister, Susan wasn't done there, " And how could you be so ungrateful to quit in moments' notice and open a card studio right next to ours? 

Clearly, you have no respect for Wyatt and the work he does. Do you think running a card boutique is easy? You know how we struggled to start this and how many hours Wyatt spent in the card lab mass-producing cards just to gather enough funds for the boutique? Just because he makes it seem easy doesn't mean that anybody can open a card studio and run it successfully. 

Since you genuinely call me your big sister, I have taken it upon myself to correct your ways and teach you how society works and how every person plays their role in keeping the community functional. Mind you, no role is small or to be looked down on. Because society is similar to a big machine, and we are parts of that machine. No matter how small the part, if it stops functioning, the machine starts to malfunction or shut down for good."