The Card Apprentice

Butchie looked around. A few people in the room had all turned to look at her in unison. Why would she pay any mind to such a small arena? She was known as the female T. rex! She was waving one of Heaven’s Wings’ educational materials fantasy cards and asked in a loud voice, “Who made this?”

Everyone looked at each other, their faces full of puzzlement, and no one answered.

Butchie got a little agitated and raised her eyebrows as well as the volume of her voice. “Speak up!”

Behind Chen Mu, Lu Xiaoru flashed a murderous look. She had nearly been killed at Butchie’s hands, and she was still brooding over that. She was pretty put out with Butchie running in and shouting, and she was secretly preparing to fight. Once Chen Mu gave the order, she’d do the killing! She smiled coldly to herself. That youth didn’t seem like someone who would stand for anyone pushing him around, no matter how you looked at him. That damned woman wouldn’t stand a chance against the two of them together.

She had plenty of self confidence and even more confidence in the youth.

Butchie’s unrestrained shouting had also annoyed some of the Heaven’s Wings employees. Wouldn’t it put them in a tough spot for her to run into Heaven’s Wings right in front of the boss and yell like that?

“Young lady…” One of the employees couldn’t help but come forward to let her know.

The unhappy gazes of those all around made Butchie realize she had unwittingly offended those people. She had always run rampant through her own organization. Apart from the boss-man and Hugo, she’d run roughshod over everyone else. She’d seen a lot of that sort of scene.

“Who made it?” Butchie looked a little impatient as she held her right hand level. Then, a wooden table in the corner suddenly exploded into splinters with a loud pop. She was anxious but also thought an advertising company wasn’t likely to have any powerful people. Even if they did have card artisans, that wouldn’t have scared her in the least. The only companies who would have card artisans at her level would be the large ones.

Her move was effective; all the Heaven’s Wings employees went silent. Their faces looked angry, though they were awed by her strength. But, some of the older staff—which was quite a few of them—showed some excitement and anticipation. They had seen what Chen Mu could do and knew their boss wasn’t a character to be provoked.

Sure enough, Chen Mu stood up.

“Who are you?” Although he spoke in even tones, an intimidating note came through. Probably even Chen Mu himself didn’t know how much he had unwittingly adopted the style of a higher-up. Starting from when he’d led children through the jungle and then to the underground city base, he had been playing the role of the leader. After he got to Pomelo and became the boss of Heaven’s Wings, all those experiences had caused a transformation with his temperament without him being quite aware of it.

Whether he was in front of those children in the jungle or at Heaven’s Wings, he didn’t really feel he was any kind of leader. That was why he’d been able to simply leave the base without the slightest regret. He could easily leave Heaven’s Wings in the same way if anything were to happen.

However, whether or not he himself could tell, the transformation certainly did exist.

Butchie was a little surprised to see the youth who walked out from among the group. He was probably the youngest of all of them, though his tone carried the most authority. Although Butchie was arrogant, she wasn’t stupid. None of those employees looked at all like anything unusual had happened. She was immediately 80 or 90 percent certain the youth in front of her was the boss of Heaven’s Wings. He wasn’t very robust and even looked rather wimpy. But, she had only seen his imposing manner in the likes of Hugo or the boss-man.

Her gaze suddenly froze when it fell onto the professional beauty behind the youth.

This woman is dangerous! Butchie was shuddering inwardly. Perception among aces was really subtle even though that pretty woman, all professionally dressed, looked like she ought to be the youth’s secretary. What she found strangest was that the secretary felt somewhat familiar between her features. No matter how much she searched her brain, she couldn’t come up with who it was for the life of her.

But, what was happening in front of her stopped her from thinking any further. She had already discovered that the look in the secretary’s eyes wasn’t well-disposed toward her. It was as though she might make a move at any minute.

That youth turned out to be a not-so-simple person, after all! Butchie was still more confirmed in her assessment.

No matter who he was, he couldn’t have been very simple to have such a beautiful and powerful female secretary as his personal bodyguard. Although there were more and more female card artisans those days, one as stunning and powerful as her would be a scarce resource in any place.

The atmosphere had turned abruptly hostile with swords drawn and bows bent.

Butchie suddenly smiled sweetly, and the light in the room seemed to brighten a few notches.

“This little girl was only so abrupt because I was so eager. I would like to apologize to each of you! Please forgive me! I’m called Butchie, and I came to find the card master who made this card. I would like to commission this card master to make a battle card.” Butchie elegantly demonstrated her easy politeness all around with a sincere expression. She believed even the old lady who’d taught her etiquette wouldn’t have found fault with her that time.

The staff all had their mouths hanging open and couldn’t believe what they saw. Their brains had short-circuited. They didn’t understand how the provocative and savage girl had just become a different person; she had become a worldly, polite lady. Seeing Butchie standing there lovably, so meek and frail, they wondered if they had been dizzy. Some of the younger staff already regretted how they could have been so angry with such a mild maiden.

A look of surprise flashed through Lu Xiaoru’s eyes behind Chen Mu, followed by a playful smile forming in the corner of her mouth. Lu Xiaoru wasn’t from the finest stock herself. She was familiar with that change in temperament. Otherwise, Butchie wouldn’t have been so prone to not recognize her. She was displaying her own skills before a master!

Among all of them, the most stable and peaceful was Chen Mu. Of course, that was because Wei-ah wasn’t there.

His expression was cool; he knew clearly how dangerous that seemingly meek and innocent little girlfriend in front of him was! Because of his childhood experience, his attitude toward pretty women was rather different from that of ordinary people. He had seen quite a few women who were as pretty as flowers with hearts of snakes. Born poor as he was, of course he never had any improper feelings about those so-called beauties.

He could be upright if he had no desires. Plus, the arrogance and savagery of his counterpart disgusted him.

“I made it,” Chen Mu responded with a mild expression. Butchie looked overjoyed. How could she not be, having finally found the card master? However, Chen Mu’s next words were like a bucket of cold water that extinguished the passion in her heart.

“But, I won’t be able to make you a card.” Chen Mu was as mild as usual, though any idiot could discern the firm and peremptory tone in what he said.

“Why?” Butchie asked without thinking, with a strong note of not being reconciled to what he’d said.

Chen Mu wasn’t going to explain anything to her, and he threw out the phrase, “Please leave, thank you.” He then turned around to continue his own work.

A look of anger flashed in Butchie’s eyes, but just as she was about to make a move, Lu Xiaoru seemed almost inadvertently to be standing in front of Chen Mu. She was looking at Butchie with a smile that wasn’t a smile; she was watching Butchie get beaten and feeling pretty good about it. Although her wounds still hadn’t healed, she wasn’t the least bit afraid of Butchie. Moreover, there was still that inscrutable youth behind her. By that time, she was just itching for Butchie to make a scene, so she could make her own moves without any scruples.

She had enough confidence—more than enough. So, she was looking quite calm. In Butchie’s eyes, such calm had the flavor of fearlessness, which filled that girl, who had always run amok, with dread.

Although Butchie was arrogant, she wasn’t the stupid type; she knew if things turned tough, there was a great chance it wouldn’t turn out well. Since she knew who her counterpart was and had the means, she didn’t need to rush into anything just then.

Her smile was like a flower, without any annoyance on view. Then, as muddled as someone without anything to do, she said, “Since that’s the way it is, this little girl will bid farewell.” She turned and walked out of Heaven’s Wings without turning back.

Lu Xiaoru was disappointed and took a look at Chen Mu. Seeing no expression, she couldn’t do anything but watch Butchie leave.

Once Butchie left Heaven’s Wings, Chen Mu turned around to walk upstairs. Lu Xiaoru was startled and rushed to accompany him. The staff had all buried their heads in their own work, and no one paid attention to Chen Mu’s movements. They weren’t concerned with whatever the boss did. That had been the longest the boss had ever hung out with them.

Once he got upstairs, Chen Mu immediately floated in front of the window where he could still see Butchie, who had yet to fly far away after just ascending into the sky.

Chen Mu took off his pants and outer clothes without any hesitation. He then took out the demonic woman’s ghost-faced flower fruit and held it in his mouth while biting it lightly.

The soft ghost-faced flower membrane squirmed over his face like mad, covering half of it in an instant. When Lu Xiaoru came in and saw the weird scene, she was startled and almost screamed. She was a woman after all, and to see a layer of something soft squirm out of his mouth as though it were alive and then nearly cover Chen Mu’s face paralyzed her. She finally found out how the mask on Chen Mu’s face was put on, but that was all, apart from terrifying her even more.

Making contact with Lu Xiaoru’s aghast gaze, Chen Mu said, “Stay here.” Before the sound faded, he’d pushed open the window and disappeared beyond the windowsill without a sound.

The sky was gradually darkening, and there were more people starting to come out onto the streets. The number of card artisans whistling through the sky had also increased. The bright and colorful fantasy card advertisements had started to show their dazzling lights. If you were to look down from above, the flashing, scattered lights made it like a city without nighttime.

The slowly thickening darkness gave Chen Mu good cover as he flew very low, sometimes taking advantage of the shadows of the buildings and carefully sticking behind Butchie.

Card artisans would seldom choose to fly close to the ground since it was too difficult, and it was easy for something to go wrong. So, the ground was devoid of the card artisans whizzing along up high. Chen Mu had chosen to stick on the ground in order to not be discovered. That meant he would sometimes need to avoid all kinds of obstacles, such as buildings or those ordinary people just off work who used Lightweight Cards. They were simpler and more convenient than the ones the students from Eastern Wei Academy had used. They didn’t require perception to control and could make a person’s walking relatively effortless and fast.

Theoretically, flying on the ground couldn’t compare to the speed of high-altitude flight, though Chen Mu had taken it to its limit to stick right behind Butchie.

He wanted to know what power Butchie belonged to and why they were paying attention to him. Although she’d only come looking for a card, Chen Mu didn’t believe that could be a coincidence. Everyone had just intersected in the recent battle, and to be sought out for a card by one of them was just too coincidental!

He had never tried such mad high-speed flight so close to the ground! To be precise, he wasn’t simply flying. In order to be able to increase his speed to the limit, he had brought to bear every bit of skill that might increase his speed, with full abandon.

He picked up the speed of his quick steps to drift and cut…

The wind whooshed past his ears and the rapidly retreating scenery left afterimages of colorful, flowing lights on his retina.

Unprecedented speed and passion!

For every step, the elastic grass transmitted powerful impacts from beneath his feet, and the scenery in his field of vision started to show brief fuzziness. When he raised his face, the wind blew to the point where he couldn’t open his eyes, though he didn’t dare to close them. The wind on his face pressed in on every part of his body, and he needed all of his strength just to resist such fierce pressure.

Seeing Butchie pulling away from him little by little, Chen Mu became anxious. No good! He would certainly fall behind if he continued on that way! How could he go any damned faster? He felt like he was in the water pool where his every bit of energy had been squeezed out; under the impact of the torrent, it was as though he had no room to struggle.

Unlike that training, this feeling of powerlessness was so fierce! It was like a hidden blue flame silently roasting his spirit, and the stubbornness buried deep in his bones got completely excited. His blood boiled in that instant, imperiling him like a volcano spewing lava; it boiled until nearly his whole body was trembling.

Faster! Faster! I need to go faster!

In the dark, Chen Mu was suddenly glaring wide-eyed with a contorted face! Immersed in a feeling of helplessness as he was, he subconsciously made a movement as though he were parting water, and his body slightly slithered like a fish. Having already reached the limit of his speed, he could feel the pressure on his raised face seem to ease off, and his body dashed suddenly forward.