1345 Showmanship
Date- 7 April 2321
Time- 11:48
Location- Southern Region, Southern Capital, Southern Card Creation Association, Auction House
“Winner, challenger Chris Ainsworth,” the referee overlooking the challenge announced the result causing the crowd burst out in cheers and shower Chris with applause while the representative of the south dejectedly stepped down the stage.
“Wyatt, you are up,” Ann reminded the boy.
“Wait, give the beggar a moment to enjoy his victory,” I said eyeing Chris Ainsworth. This fellow had noticed our arrival in the royal family’s exclusive VIP box when he was half-heartedly competing in the challenge. He was monitoring Ann from the corner of his eyes. I guess her arrival was his queue to bring this challenge to climax or so I thought.
Chris directly took the stoplight from the announcer to start his second act, looking at the balcony of the Royal family’s VIP box he loudly addressed the crowd, “Good people, thank you for supporting this humble, my victories so far would not be possible without your cheers and well wishes. I promise you I will not climb down this state until justice is served.”
Following Chris’s gaze, the spectators stripped their gaze from the stage by turning their heads toward the Royal family’s VIP box to find the Southern Emperor and her friends on the balcony. Then Chris continued to say, “I am honored to be in the presence of Her Highness Southern Emperor. I hope Her Highness will help me seek justice for the shame I suffered by the snobbish card creationist association.”
Chris was good, he had purposefully not associated the card creationist association with the southern region because he knew if did so he will instantly lose the popular support of the southern citizens he had managed to gather so far as the Southern Emperor represented the Southern region.
If Chris were to declare to his Southern audience that he was just facing the Southern card creationist association but not the card creationist association as a whole then the stage he had created on their support for his theatrics would crumble. No matter how angry the Southern crowd was with the Southern card creationist association, against a foreign enemy they would bury the hatchet and come together to face the foreign enemy. Therefore, Chris was very careful when he crafted his narrative of the events so that the crowd would favor him.
The smart audience had already noticed that before the arrival of the Southern Emperor, Chris had no qualms about focusing his lens on the Southern card creationist association. And in the Southern emperor’s presence, his lens zoomed out and focused on the entire card creationist association. Causing them to wake up from the spell of Chris’s showmanship.
Chris had no problem changing his narrative to target the whole card creationist association instead of just the southern branch because he had already spread his desired title for the challenge across the network of the other regions,
‘A poor beggar from the west faces the elitists from the south’
‘A young card creationist from the west takes on the pretentious southern card creationist association.’
‘West teaches South to be humble.’
Being put in the spotlight by Chris, Ann had no choice but to come forward and clarify, “Had you followed the proper channels the concerned authorities would have followed the evidence to uncover and punish the true culprit. But since you have taken the matter into your hands by initiating a challenge, the Southern Royal family will respect your decision and freedom. However, the people of the South are entitled to the truth, so a thorough investigation will be launched with regard to this matter and the truth will be uncovered for everyone to see as soon as possible. Those at fault will be dealt with accordingly.”
Listening to the diplomatic response from Ann Chris frowned but quickly replaced it with a wide smile and expressed his gratitude, “Thank you, your Highness Southern Emperor.”
The reason Chris frowned was that Ann’s response was totally out of his calculation. He had perceived that with little provocation Ann would say something rash which would put the Southern Royal family in a bad light instead she did not fall for his provocation and gave a diplomatic response.
Despite all conspiracies and calculations, Chris did not know that the person who he thought to be the Southern Emperor was actually someone entirely different. He could never guess that his calculations failed because he mistook Ann for Anna just like the audience and the millions of people watching the live stream of the challenge from the comfort of their homes or workplace did.
ραndαsΝοvεl ƈοm Feeling that the second act of his plan was not going as he hoped, Chris decided to turn up the heat by shifting his lens back to the Southern card creationist association from the Southern Emperor yelling, “Next.”
The content of Chris’s plan was simple, he took to the onlookers and the network after being denied entry to the card creationist association and demand an apology from them for denying him entry into their facilities.
However, the card creationist association would not apologize to him because after a quick investigation, it was found that their staff was not at fault but Chris was being unreasonable and purposefully creating trouble for them.
Not getting the apology that he demanded for the shame and embarrassment he had suffered Chris challenged the southern card creationist association to a card creation duel by making use of the public’s popular support, planning to defeat all their representative to a point where they would be forced to apologize to him.
At least this was the story Chris sold to the public to gain their popular support. But Chris knew that the southern card creationist association would never apologize to him because that would mean accepting guilt and admitting that they were not as capable as the western card creationist association. Bringing shame to the entire southern region.
Chris had managed to use public support and his card creation mastery to put the southern card creationist association into check.