Chapter 15
WHILE SHE WAITED for the photo shoot to be set up, Mira enjoyed wandering about, window shopping wherever she saw something that took her fancy.
Hrmm… Medicinal goods all seem to be the same price everywhere. And yet, the price of snacks varies wildly.
Strolling around and comparing prices, Mira wondered why this was the case. She didn’t feel like dwelling on it much. Her first priority was to take in the sights, so she quickly forgot the puzzle and turned her attention to what came next.
Standing among a row of stores on the shopping street, a large building bore a sign saying, House of Asteria.
“Wow, this must be a card shop.”
Poking her head inside, Mira saw the familiar interior of the store sprawl out before her. It only took her a single glance to see what the store was selling.
Jeez, they really have a lot…
Surveying the store from the entrance, Mira smiled at how different it was from the last time she’d visited. When she’d seen the card shop back then, it was full of children such as Marian, who’d utterly fallen for Mira’s devilish charm.
But for some reason, this card shop was different in that almost everyone here was an adult. Not only that, but the playing area also seemed to be positively bustling.
Having resolved to check out a card shop to see if there were any Danblf cards, Mira looked around the showcases as she kept an eye on the boisterous adults.
Ugh… There’s even a Luminaria one!
Sure enough, she wasn’t able to find what she was looking for. On her way out, she thought about buying a few packs of cards. As she was considering this, the group of adults began cheering.
They’re oddly enthusiastic.
Turning toward the group, Mira learned the reason for their excitement. On the wall toward the back of the playing space, which was filled with adults, hung a prominent poster. Across it was written, 1st Legends of Asteria Continental Championship—First Qualifiers.
So it was a big tournament. Mira was shocked to see the prizes that were listed on the edge of the poster. Aside from getting a special edition tournament-only card, the winner would get their favorite card set and the right to choose a model for a brand-new card. Those certainly were pretty cool prizes.
But what stood out to her most was the prize money.
“Whoa… Thirty million ducats?!”
For a trading card game, that was an exorbitant amount of money. That kind of prize money wasn’t something you saw in the real world. While reflecting on the past, Mira fantasized about that fantastic prize.
But she only did so for a moment. She realized that rather than pouring her efforts into collecting cards and coming up with strategies to win, she’d rather just go wild with summoning.
I was never able to beat Solomon at cards anyway. Not even once…
Having been utterly thrashed by Solomon in the past, Mira knew her card-playing capabilities well. For that reason, she didn’t regret passing on the opportunity. But perhaps because she still found it interesting, she slipped into the group of adults to get a quick look at the preliminaries.
The crowd was about half men and half women. Thanks to her petite size, she was able to squeeze in between the adults.
Whether by happy accident or instinct, she slipped in among the female part of the crowd. Then, peeking her head out from the front row, she saw a handsome lad and a beautiful young girl facing each other at a table in front of her.
“If you can just hang in there, you’ll be in the championship. Stay focused!” a man who appeared to be the boy’s friend cheered. Immediately afterward, one of the staff gave him a warning that it was prohibited to say anything that might be construed as advice.
It’s a pretty close match…
There was a tournament bracket on the other side of the table, and on it was written how the tournament was progressing. It seemed as if this was the final match of the preliminaries. The match was the best of three, and both players scored one victory. Both of their life points were down to twenty.
The handsome lad and the beautiful girl were facing off with enough power on the board to wipe out each other’s remaining twenty life points.
It was like a scene from a movie. She could understand why there was so much hype.
“It all comes down to this turn, huh?” Mira muttered to herself knowingly after glancing over the rules. Then she watched the game play out.
But right then, the game state changed distinctly. As if to cement his victory, the handsome boy played a rare legend card. An audible gasp went up from the spectators, which was followed by giddy cheers from several women who were fans of handsome boys.
Mira murmured, “Wow,” in a low voice at the same moment. The card the boy had played was Simonikrith the Sniper, who was one of the Forty-Eight Nameless Generals.
They were from the largest player-held nation, Atlantis. The number of players affiliated there was far beyond that of the Kingdom of Alcait, and it was a veritable treasure trove of top-class talent.
The Forty-Eight Nameless Generals was a group comprised of the most outstanding forty-eight people in the nation. Being the elite of the elite, each of the Forty-Eight Nameless Generals possessed fighting prowess far beyond that of any ordinary person.
Simonikrith was no exception, a monster who could launch a spear from incredibly far away and still hit his target right between the eyes. During joint practice, Mira had seen one of his great spears fly straight through the shield of one of her holy knights from such a great distance that she couldn’t even see him. She smiled to herself as she reminisced about Simonikrith, who’d been her friend ever since.
While she thought about this, the match took another turn as the men who appeared to be fans of the young girl let out a cheer.
The girl had played one of her rare legends.
It was now legend versus legend. It seemed like the match was really heating up, as even the spectators who weren’t fans were now getting more excited than they had been before.
The most excited one there was none other than Mira.
“WHOOOA!” she unconsciously cried loudly in surprise.
This made sense. The card the girl had played was Danblf, the One-Man Army.
They really have a card of me! That’s fantastic. I am the coolest!
The art of the card looked just like a screenshot she’d taken with Eizenfald, back when she was Danblf. The photo that she thought had been the absolute coolest had been made into a card. Having been unable to find the card, the joy she felt was immeasurable.
Without meaning to, Mira stared intently at the Danblf card as she bent halfway over the railing. Immediately, one of the staff warned her to be careful.
I can’t believe I’m seeing it here. And not only that, a beautiful girl is playing my card. He he he!
The warning didn’t phase her. She nevertheless politely drew herself back, a smile plastered on her face, and cheered for the girl deep down with all her might. But as Mira had become hyper-focused on the match, she didn’t notice that her behavior caused a good percentage of the spectators who’d been watching the match to now watch her.
“Is that girl someone’s friend?”
“I haven’t seen her around here.”
“I feel like I’ve heard about someone who looks like her…”
“I wanna get to know her.”
While the handsome lad and the beautiful girl were young, the fact that the rest of the tournament was populated by adults meant that Mira stood out quite a bit. And now talk of Mira—which had begun as whispers—ended up spreading throughout the entire group of spectators. Word of her even reached the handsome lad, who was in the middle of concentrating on the match, though what he heard wasn’t necessarily accurate.
Due to two rare legends now being on the field, the state of the match had heated up. It was now a battle of wits that was so precise that even a single moment of distraction could cost either player the match.
But thanks to the special ability of Danblf, the One-Man Army, the match was sliding more and more in the girl’s favor.
As this was happening, the handsome lad heard about Mira. In particular, he heard, “There’s a fangirl that looks like some kind of angel.”
At present, the handsome lad had been drawing poorly, and it was clear that he was now at a disadvantage. For that reason, he sought to draw some encouragement from the fans hoping for him to win. He turned his gaze toward the group of his fans.
“An angel…”
There among the handsome lad’s fans was a girl so beautiful that it was clear why she’d been called an angel. At that moment, the handsome lad felt something warm flutter through his chest.
He felt invigorated. Despite being at a disadvantage, the beautiful, angelic girl with a radiant smile was cheering him on and had given him the courage to not give in.
I’ve been in these kinds of situations plenty of times. I can’t fall apart in front of everyone in a place like this!
Somehow, he managed to survive the pretty girl’s turn. Now, it was finally his… With the face of his angel burned deep into his heart, his turn began, and he called on the heart of the cards as he drew.
Mira watched how the final round of the preliminaries of Legends of Asteria was playing out with an anxious look on her face. Having played her rare Danblf, the One-Man Army, the situation on the battlefield momentarily swung in the girl’s favor. However, with the single draw the boy had taken, whatever advantage she had was about to evaporate.
“That cheeky rascal…!”
Needless to say, Mira was rooting for the girl who not only had the Danblf card but was also very pretty. However, the handsome lad had shown his tenacity at the eleventh hour, holding on by his very fingertips. It felt as if it were at the bottom of the ninth, with the score being three to zero with bases loaded. Meanwhile, all the girls around Mira cheered whenever the handsome lad began making a comeback.
After this happened several times, it finally hit Mira that she was in the wrong area.
It was nice to be in a situation where she was surrounded by women, but she felt very much in enemy territory. She wondered what’d happen if they all realized that she was rooting for the pretty girl.
Checking just how zealous the female fans were, Mira inconspicuously pulled herself away and moved elsewhere.
Hrmm… I see. It’s pretty obvious.
While moving, Mira observed the spectators and figured out how they were dispersed. There were three basic camps: the people rooting for the handsome lad, the people rooting for the pretty girl, and the people who were just there to see the match.
From what she could tell, the male-female ratio of those simply there to watch the match was evenly split. There were ordinary townsfolk, adventurers, and those that looked rather well off. It was a diverse group, and they were dispersed all throughout the venue.
The handsome lad’s fans were a mass of women with cheerleader gear clutched in their hands, making them a very easy group to spot. The pretty girl’s fans were very much the same. They were all wearing matching cloaks and looked like some idol group’s cheer squad. The group was so bizarrely full of guys that they were readily recognizable, even to the uninitiated.
Having distinguished these three groups, Mira slipped into the safer, general spectator group, taking advantage of her petite size to push herself forward.
She thought that this time, she’d be able to make her way to the back. However, given how small Mira was, the other spectators just ended up kindly making way for her. And so, Mira once again ended up poking her head out from the front row as she continued watching the match.
As she did, she noticed that there was another group: the five people next to her.
They were mingled within the group of the normal tournament spectators but were giving off an unusual vibe as they watched the final match.
Who could they be? Could they be a group of stalkers targeting the pretty girl? That put Mira on full alert. But she soon discovered there was no need.
From the snippets of the conversation she overheard, she was able to guess who they really were.
“That was a good move.”
“Yeah, but not assertive enough.”
“They won’t last much longer at this rate. It’s too little, too late.”
“I’d heard they were pretty popular, so I came to get a look. But to think it was all because of their looks…”
“Whoever ends up making it to the championship will probably get knocked out.”
“I didn’t expect to see a card of one of the Nine Wise Men.”
“Yeah, the Danblf card. That card is a pain because there aren’t many of them, so it’s tricky to play around.”
“I can’t even believe there are still summoners.”
“I know, it’s like, ‘Were there really people who did that?’”
The group laughed loudly.
It seemed they were also competitors and had come to scope out who they’d be up against in the championship. Mira glared at the group, mostly because she heard the way they’d disparaged summoners.
“Hey, we’re getting eyeballed.”
“I bet. We’re the favorites to win, so there’s been a lot of talk going around about us.”
The group of competitors got a kick out of the fiery stare coming at them from a beautiful young girl. Of course, they were mistaken. Mira had poured nothing but resentment into her stare. But being so cute, her stare lacked much of a punch.
Then the color of Mira’s eyes changed.
“Ah, ahe… Hi voith…” one cried out right afterward, his words slurred.
Hearing this, a man answered, “What’s wrong?”
“Oh, ohn aeh,” another one of them said, also unable to formulate words.
Mysteriously, the ones who were having trouble speaking were none other than the guy who’d just said that he couldn’t believe there were still summoners and the guy who’d laughed.
The men began panicking. Slowly looking away from the men, Mira’s eyes reverted to their original, bright shade of blue.
Judging from how precisely I can use it, my hard work must finally be paying off.
By using Paralyzing Demon’s Gaze, she’d paralyzed only her targets’ tongues. After much diligent practice, Mira had mastered the technique, which required both finesse and very precise control. And now, she could fully demonstrate the fruits of her labor.
It would last less than a minute, but because of the mana expended and how it’d been localized, it took effect very quickly. Depending on how she used the technique, she could even interrupt her opponent as they were casting a spell. And so, the human experiment, which doubled as payback for disparaging summoners, was an immediate success.
After the paralysis had worn off, the five conferred with each other about what on earth had happened. Their voices then dropped away like a fading breeze, allowing Mira and the other spectators to focus on watching the final match.
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