Card Apprentice Daily Log

Date- 3 April 2321

Time- 17:46

Location- Sun Blossom City, Card Creationist Association, Auction house, VIP Venue

Despite her mental health issues, Lucy was smart. Though she had trouble following which came to the rest of us as easy as drinking water and breathing air, her years of experience had created her way of making up for what she lacked. Yes, it was not the ideal replacement, but over time experiencing and learning from mistakes, her system was reaching its perfection with time. What was commonsense to us, for Lucy it was as hard as solving an ugly math problem. And her way of coping with things has brought her this far long along the way.

"So you don't want that card anymore? You changed your mind just like that?" Hearing Lucy easily give up on the sword energy card that she fixated on after causing all this drama, Eliza was stumped. She was surprised to see how far Lucy was willing to go to get what she wanted and how certain Lucy was about what she wanted. Eliza felt that in some way she had a lot to learn from Lucy. Still, this realization did not help her with the frustration she felt over the fact that Lucy was going to just walk away after all that trouble she went through- they went through to win that particular energy sword card out of the nine energy sword cards.

"No, not with that price," Lucy answered nonchalantly. She did feel Eliza's irritation through her voice but since she did not understand it she chose not to address it. In her experience asking a person why they were irritated was often responded with a lie, 'I'm not irritated' followed by increased levels of irritation. Lucy never understood why people failed to agree to their feelings, if you are feeling sad agree that you were sad. It was the same for her grandparents they always have a sad look in their eyes but keep assuring her that they were not sad. Why did people have to make things so complicated for her?

"Okay, what about bidding for other energy sword cards? You wanted to buy an energy sword card right? Wait why did you want to buy an energy sword card in the first place? With the nature of your origin card, weapon cards are redundant to you." Eliza felt Lucy's answer made sense because no card was worth buying for the five-time the price of its actual price.

"Yes, I know. That card was for grandpa. Grandma asked me to buy a good gift for grandpa's birthday. Grandpa is good with swords. An energy sword card with near-perfect durability and star ratings for 300 median soul jades is a good gift for grandpa. Other energy sword cards are not a good gift, as their pricing is too high," Lucy answered Eliza.

Hearing Lucy's definition of a good gift, Eliza did not know whether to sigh or laugh. And she could not help but feel Lucy was confusing the definition of a good gift with the definition of a good deal. Eliza shook her head with a small smile, hearing Lucy's straightforward answer Eliza could not be mad at her anymore. This was the reason why Eliza liked to hang out with Lucy, as while talking with Lucy she did not have to worry if there was a double meaning or second agenda to what Lucy said. She did not have to worry about Lucy lying to her or her doing something contrary to what she said. As the heir to the Whiteburn family, Eliza has met a lot of people who approached her with motives in mind, so for her, someone like Lucy was a change, a good chance, "it can't be mad at you anymore, come let us get some ice cream, I have a sudden craving for it."

"No, I haven't found a gift for grandpa yet. Were you mad at me?" Lucy rejected Eliza's request and showed concern if Eliza was mad at her.

"Not anymore. Let's find your grandpa's gift and then we are going to get ice cream," Eliza answered Lucy, and any signs of frustration she felt were long gone.

"Okay," Lucy agreed and was happy that she would be getting ice cream afterward.

"Association head, thank you for your help. And sorry we seemed to have created unnecessary trouble for you," having sorted out things with Lucy, Eliza finally remembered the association head who came to their rescue. Then she thanked him for his help and apologized at the same time as she knew that Mike Brown was the new branch Leader of the circle and surprisingly the son of the unreasonable middle-aged woman. Eliza always pictured the leader of the circle as this big scary dude, but today the impression she got from him was different from the one she had of him. Especially when she saw him stand up for his mother.

…

Date- 3 April 2321

Time- 17:51

Location- Sun Blossom City, Card Creationist Association, Auction house, Circle leader's car

Sending his mother to her residence safely in her car, Mike Brown got into his car and ordered his head goon, "Declare a state of emergency. Call in all the inner circle members to gather for a meeting. And ask all the executives and outer members to ditch whatever they are doing and return to the headquarters."

"Yes, sir." The head goon did not question Mike Brown's order and immediately agreed to it without thinking about it as that was his job. After the head goon forward his leader's to every circle's members, Mike Brown's grimoire started to bus with numerous notifications, all asking why he had declared the state of emergency. To which he replied saying, "Gentlemen, we are preparing for war."

Mike Brown was not worried about other members of the circle double-crossing him like the leader of the card creationist association did. Because no matter how dissatisfied the member of the circle was with their organization there was no way out for them. Once a part of a circle, always a part of the circle.