episode_0153

“Dual?”

“Okay, let’s have a showdown!”

In Caldeum, the capital of the Borus Empire, one could witness the unusual sight of people dueling with strange objects attached to their arms.

“You have advanced to the finals!”

“You can’t miss this sight!”

“Isn’t that guy on the right the one I saw at the preliminary round?”

The official finals of the tournament have finally begun.

Accordingly, the finalists who gathered in the capital now dueled ahead of the final stage.

As these are people who made it through the fierce preliminary rounds, it was a great spectacle to watch the duels between these people, all of whom possess outstanding skills.

Tourists from all over the empire flocked to the capital to watch their duels, making it nearly impossible to find lodging.

Because of this, many people arrived in the capital late and were unable to find accommodation, and ended up sleeping on the streets, to the point where temporary accommodations had to be hastily built.

And the official competition finals that they had been so eager to see did not disappoint their expectations.

“I guess that’s called ‘dual arm’.”

“They say it’s something that was only given to those who made it to the finals, but it looks exactly like the one in the comics.”

The object that caught the attention of the street spectators watching the contestants dueling was the dueling arm that the contestants were wearing on their arms.

‘Crun, please make something like this, where the image illustrations on the cards pop out, and the cards are shuffled automatically when you put them in.’

‘You little punk! Do you think I’m some kind of omnipotent being?’

The Dual Arm is an item that appears in that Rupert is drawing. It is a tool that allows you to duel on the spot when worn on your arm.

That’s why at first we tried to release the product by making it with the same performance as in the comics, but even as Krun, who was like Rupert’s cheat key, we gave up on making this, saying that it was impossible.

It was technically impossible to fit so many functions into such a small space, and the materials used were extremely expensive, so Rupert had no choice but to give up.

However, it was possible to make it into a decorative item that only followed the appearance of the dual arms and excluded its function.

Rupert decided to use it as a gift to the finalists of this competition and as a tool to show that they were participants in the finals.

Thanks to this, contestants were able to recognize each other even on the streets of the capital city crowded with tourists.

“I won!”

“Damn it… I got eliminated like this.”

A man raised both arms to the sky and cheered as he inserted a piece he had received from his opponent into his dual arms.

“Now I just need to collect 3 more.”

Five holes dug into the back of the man’s dual arm wrist.

Two of those holes appeared to contain small puzzle pieces.

-Competitors who advance to the main round must obtain a total of 5 puzzle pieces to qualify for the final round.

Those who passed the preliminaries were given a dual arm, and the rules for the main event were also announced. Similar to the preliminaries, only those who stole puzzle pieces from their opponents through duels could advance to the finals.

Starting with one, you are given a harsh condition where you must win at least 4 duels to survive.

In the preliminaries, you had to collect 10 ‘Victorian’s Glory’ cards, but at that time, there were only a few random people gathered, so it was easy for skilled players to break through.

Since it was a competition between only the best players who had made it through the preliminaries, collecting the five puzzle pieces was by no means easy.

“At the North Gate, the duelists of the Deep Eyes have begun their duel!”

“Is the famous Somerset card ghost running wild in the West Gate?”

“The South Gate is currently being dueled by the Sage of Light and the Archmage Yustav!”

Duels to obtain puzzle pieces were taking place all over the capital, but there were a few matches that garnered particularly high interest.

For example, there was the match of the Deep Eye Duelist, who suddenly appeared in the capital preliminaries and was the first to pass the preliminaries, setting a record of 10 consecutive wins.

The card ghost tournament in Somerset, where people flock to see how good the little boy is at dueling, and word has spread all the way to the capital.

Or, there were matches that attracted attention because the person himself was so well-known, rather than because of his card skills.

“Are you ready to be embarrassed?”

“Haha, Yustav. If anyone heard me, they’d think Yustav was ahead of me in terms of total combat.”

“Huh! This time it’s different.”

chuck.

Yustav took out a card and showed it to Harun, who answered with a sly smile despite his sharp tone.

“Oh my! How did you…?”

“You pulled it out.”

Harun can’t hide his surprised expression after seeing the identity of the card in Yustav’s hand, and Yustav smiles as if his mind has finally been relieved after seeing that expression.

That card was none other than the Ultimate Rare Dark Archmage.

‘I’m trying to get this… .’

Although it was refreshing to see Harun so surprised, Yustav still felt heartbroken when he thought about what he had done to obtain this card.

He lied to Harun, saying that he chose it because he didn’t want to lose, but in fact, it was a card that Yustav had bought from someone else.

‘Please sell it to me!’

‘As much as I respect you, Yustav, this is not for sale.’

‘Eight! Then how about this?’

‘No, isn’t this your old staff?’

The object that Yustav gave to the owner of the card was a cane that he had used in his youth.

‘It was made from a branch of the World Tree, so it was not passed down to my disciples.’

The World Tree, the tree that the elves revere as their mother, would shed its branches once every long time, like an animal shedding its fur.

And the branches of the World Tree that fell like that start with the function of purification, protecting their owners from all kinds of harmful things.

It was truly the greatest treasure for magicians, allowing them to feel the mana of nature more deeply and intensely.

So, for wizards, obtaining a staff made from a branch of the World Tree was a lifelong dream.

It was a valuable item to the elves, so it was extremely rare for it to be taken outside.

Yustav’s staff was also something he treasured very much, as it was a gift he received when he happened to visit an elf village when he was young and helped them solve a problem they were having.

‘Okay! Then let’s exchange them.’

However, for Yustav, who had already reached the level of a great wizard and no longer needed a staff, the ultimate rare card was more important than memories of his youth and warm friendship with the elves.

‘This time for sure!’

Yustav thought that the reason he had been defeated by Harun every time up until now was because of the cards and not his skills.

This time, it was finally time to get revenge for all that had happened.

***

“Magic Card activated! Search and seizure.”

“Eww!!! How did this card come in, like a ghost, a magic card… .”

Ignoring the opponent’s screams, the boy checked his opponent’s cards and immediately threw the card that could be considered the core of his deck into the graveyard.

‘Whew… This is a gamble. The cards I have face down right now are not magic or trap cards, but evil cards. I have to bluff my opponent to earn a turn.’

An opposing player who is trying to turn things around once again even though the core of the deck has disappeared.

however,

“Chaos Knight Directly attacks cards on the opponent’s field!”

“Please!”

His opponent, a little girl, was not fooled by his bluff and simply attacked the cards he had placed face down without mercy.

In the end, the opponent, who was defeated without even being able to mount a counterattack, had no choice but to hand over his puzzle piece to the opponent with a dumbfounded expression.

“What a truly ghostly skill.”

“There’s a reason he’s called the Card Ghost of Somerset.”

“It seemed like I knew exactly what the opponent was going to do.”

The winner of the duel held at the west gate of the capital was Ada, the card ghost of Somerset, a strong contender for the tournament’s title.

Those who had just watched Ada Somerset’s duel were cheering and exclaiming in admiration.

Rumors had it that he was carrying a dog around and destroying the duelists of Somerset, but the audience, who thought it might be an exaggeration, had no choice but to admit it.

Ada’s possessed card drawing and her play as if she was looking at her opponent’s cards were indeed true to the rumors.

And there was a man who was watching Ada, who was simply enjoying the audience’s enthusiastic cheers by striking a victory pose.

‘I still don’t know you well…’

The man was none other than Own, and he had just been watching Ada’s duel from beginning to end.

Own had seen Ada learning the skills of an assassin from Alain and had a near-certain suspicion that she was engaging in a fraudulent duel.

however,

‘Miss, it’s time for you to go to sleep.’

‘Blindfold! You have to memorize all of this.’

Ada and her group first came to the capital to participate in the card tournament finals.

Own had expected that Ada would run wild now that she was free from the surveillance of Rupert and the maids, and had already been worried about how to stop her.

Contrary to expectations, Ada was busy studying the effects of cards and the rules of duels at her lodgings.

‘I didn’t know that the young lady would work that hard.’

‘Isn’t that obvious?’

‘yes?’

‘This is the first comic the master has shown the young lady since the Ice Kingdom.’

-So, the young lady can’t help but fall in love with it.

After listening to Alain, Oun began to understand, but then he was left wondering why he had taught him how to apply his assassin skills to card games.

‘I just learned it because I wanted to imitate the characters in comics.’

‘For just that reason?’

‘It’s not just that. It’s the most important thing to you, young lady.’

Contrary to Own’s suspicions, Ada has never used the technique in any of her duels so far.

She was always sincere in her duels, except for the times when she did it to show off to the neighborhood kids.

‘Go away! It’s hard to concentrate when you’re right next to me!’

Even the Rash that he always carries around is dropped during a duel.

During a duel, she would analyze her opponent’s facial expressions, movements, and even words to figure out their psychology, but having Rash by her side would be a hindrance to that.

‘Bam.’

So, it was Rash who had no choice but to always move in the opposite direction from Ada.

‘I like everything my brother makes!’

Whenever she whined to her brother, he would come up with fun and new things for her, which was the best thing in the world.

The that her older brother had first allowed her to play was so precious to her that she never wanted to do anything bad, even as a joke.