Chapter Index

    “The King of the Imperial Cup Card Tournament! The final match will begin now!!!”

    Starting with the announcer’s shout, the audience once again erupted in enthusiastic cheers.

    But William and Ada, who were now inside the duel room, could not hear the announcer’s shouts or the audience’s cheers.

    Fully soundproofed dual room.

    Moreover, the structure is such that the inside can be seen from the outside, but the outside cannot be seen from the inside.

    All the participants inside could see was their opponents.

    “Mister, you’re doing great!”

    “I just started dueling and you’re already praising me?”

    “Yeah! Ada knows when she sees it.”

    Ada was giving William a sincere compliment, not just something to make him feel better.

    ‘His eyes don’t flinch and his facial expressions and movements don’t show any particular momentum.’

    The opponents that Ada has fought so far each had their own unique habits or it was easy to observe the changes in their bodies when they drew a card.

    But William, his opponent in the finals, had no movement in his expression, and even his eyes and gaze, which were the most difficult to control, showed no sign of anything.

    Meanwhile, William was also revising his evaluation of Ada upward.

    ‘This is a child?’

    William thought he wouldn’t let his guard down because he had seen Ada’s game, but when he saw her in person at the stadium, he was truly surprised by her momentum.

    It was as if Ada was radiating a similar vibe to the hidden powerhouses of the empire he had previously faced.

    “I will turn this card over and end my turn.”

    Don’t let your guard down.

    William decided that he was dealing with a head of one of the seven noble houses of the empire, not a child.

    ***

    “That guy! That guy!! How could he do that to a child!!”

    “Please fix it, Your Highness.”

    “No, William, look at that guy trying to beat that kid!”

    Crown Prince Alex was also attending this event.

    Of course, if his father, the emperor, found out, he would be furious.

    ‘Now you too must learn the duties of an emperor little by little.’

    A situation where he is gradually sharing his authority with his eldest son, who has changed beyond recognition, and teaching him what it means to be an emperor.

    While the Emperor was away attending the competition, the Crown Prince was not allowed to leave the palace, but he had managed to sneak out using the disguise he had used during his days as a vagabond.

    ‘Ada is going to the competition, so shouldn’t I be cheering her on?’

    Alex, who had sneaked out to support his goddaughter Ada, was now furious at his younger brother William.

    ‘The Devil’s Gift’

    This was due to the existence of this trap card that was uniquely installed on one’s own field rather than the opponent’s.

    “Magic Card Crossing Souls!”

    Ada, who is currently dueling, activates a magic card to bring the demon from William’s field to her field.

    But the devil had already used William’s gift card.

    -Plant the heart of the demon tribe in the demon on the field. The moment the demon summoned as a sacrifice attacks an opponent, the attack point will directly hit the player.

    “No!!! If you take that away from me… .”

    Alex tried to scream loudly because Ada’s defeat was certain if things continued like this.

    It was a waste of time as the dual room was completely soundproof and there was no view outside.

    “I will summon the Thousand Illusionist, a fantasy beast, with the demons I stole from the crossing souls!”

    As Ada’s turn ended, in which she stole William’s field magic and summoned one of the strongest magics, the Thousand Illusionist, William focused all his attention on controlling his expression.

    ‘The moment I attack, my victory is assured.’

    The destructive power of the Thousand Illusionist, which was the combined attack power of the demons offered as sacrifices, directly hit Ada.

    The duel was supposed to end at that moment.

    “I will end my turn by placing two cards face down on the field.”

    William acts with a stern expression as if he has no cards to play.

    It was a deliberate design that left the field empty so that Ada could attack easily.

    “I am a Thousand Illusionist who attacks my opponents directly… .”

    And at the moment when she was about to attack and finish off William during her turn, Ada felt a strange sense of discomfort.

    William felt like he was being treated too weakly now compared to his previous strong performance.

    That doesn’t mean that even a beginner at cards wouldn’t attack right now.

    It was right to attack, but an uneasy feeling made Ada hesitate.

    -This is a card I made for Ada, so I should use it carefully, right?

    At that moment, Ada’s eyes caught sight of the card in her hand, the Magic Card that Rupert had modeled after her.

    “I will sacrifice Thousand Illusionist and Steel Knight to summon Winter Princess card!”

    And Ada trusted her instincts.

    A special card modeled after her by her brother Rupert, showing her having fun in an Elsa dress.

    It was Ada who summoned the Winter Princess.

    “And use the magic card Preemptive Attack to summon Winter Princess and attack the opposing player directly!”

    An illustration of Winter Princess in her adult form appears in the duel room, and a scene appears where she roundhouse kicks William.

    “The winner of the final match is Ada Somerset!!!!”

    It was the moment when a fierce match came to an end.

    “Haa… , I didn’t expect you to lose.”

    William was still dumbfounded by the combo of Ada’s magical summons and magic cards that happened in an instant.

    “I guess it’s right to start with congratulations. Congratulations on winning.”

    “Thank you, sir!”

    Still, it was William who approached Ada, who had put on a great fight, and shook her hand.

    Ada smiled and shook William’s hand, knowing that he was a formidable opponent.

    Because she was hoping to have a great duel with a strong opponent.

    “But let me ask you one thing. Why did you attack with Winter Princess instead of Thousand Illusionist at the end?”

    A question that came up because I still don’t understand.

    Could it be that he knew in advance that he had prepared the devil’s gift?

    But Ada’s answer was completely unexpected.

    “Because I am the one who pioneers the future!”

    Ada held the Winter Princess card in her hand.

    ***

    After the successful conclusion of the Imperial Cup Somerset Card Tournament, people’s attention was focused on The King of Cards.

    -I will award this card as a special prize to the winner, Ada Somerset.

    After the final match, the Emperor personally handed the card to the winner, Ada, at the awards ceremony, which was recorded on video and broadcast throughout the Empire through the Yuren Upper Branch.

    “This is going crazy! When are the Guardian Cards that protect the Imperial Family going to be released!!!”

    “That’s a special type that’s only given to the winners, and they’re releasing a regular version separately, right?”

    “Starting with the gold border, they even embedded real jewels into the card’s artwork!”

    There were a total of three cards named Guardian Deities that protected the royal family that had been brought down due to injury.

    All three of these cards have flashy decorations and illustrations that defy comparison with regular cards, not to mention ultimate rare cards, so everyone who plays cards wants to get their hands on them.

    That’s why, as soon as the tournament ended, all the card collectors in the empire gathered at Somerset Manor, begging to at least let them look at the cards, even if they didn’t want to sell them.

    ‘Ada, can I show your card to people?’

    ‘huh!’

    Ada’s goal was to win, and she wasn’t really interested in the cards she received as an injury.

    So Rupert chose to display the cards in his Somerset Goods shop in the capital, where for a time the area was paralyzed by crowds of people flocking to see them.

    “That kind of card competition had a greater influence than I thought!”

    The aftermath of the competition did not end there.

    Merchants who witnessed their products being appropriately advertised from the time the competition was held to the time the games were played were shocked.

    No matter how hard they tried to advertise their wares or make their name known, it was not very effective, but the Summerset and Uren merchants were doing the difficult work with much ease.

    Since the competition, you can often see people walking around the streets humming “Happy Happy Happy Somerset!”

    ‘Should I use the top of Yuren? I heard it’s good there these days.’

    I couldn’t just sit still when a significant number of regular customers using the top started using the Uren top.

    “We are hosting an Iron Top Dual Tournament!”

    “The next generation of cartoonists will be selected from the top of Harvest! Apply now!”

    Other companies are also starting to actively move to hold card game competitions for advertising effects, or to enter cultural industries such as comics and fairy tales, which they had only made a show of up until now.

    However, it was not easy to overcome the wall at the top of Somerset and Uren, who had already solidified their position in the market.

    “No, you called the duelists, but you didn’t even prepare a duel table, let alone a duel room!”

    “There was a fight during the duel, but does it make sense that there were no guards to judge it?”

    “Eight! The Somerset tournament was easy to watch because there were presenters and commentators.”

    Even the Summerset and Yuren tops would have made many mistakes if they had tried to do something on their own that would have been absolutely impossible without the support of the royal family while conducting the competition.

    “Why won’t you produce works from our top?!”

    “Sorry, but my goal is to serialize in Manapia.”

    The same was true for fairy tales and comics.

    Other companies that had tried to recruit talented painters and storytellers through contests were all experiencing low participation rates.

    ‘If possible, I want to serialize it in Manapia!’

    It was because of the writers’ admiration for Rupert, who first introduced the comics culture to the empire.

    In the first place, they started to want to draw comics because they were influenced by Rupert’s works, so they preferred Manapia, which Rupert was serializing.

    And the top of Yuren did not miss out on such talents and signed contracts to prepare works.

    It was a Yuren top that gathered writers with one contract condition: that the writers who were currently serializing would be given top priority when completing their works or increasing the number of their works.

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