Card Apprentice Daily Log

Date- 3 April 2321

Time- 22:07

Location- Sun Blossom City Outskirts, Unknown area

"Hey, Gray Fur, the target is heading back to the city after meeting those ants in floater carriers. This is the last chance, give the green single, when I am done we can go home early," Sniper updated Gray Fur on their target's movement.

"That is not the target, it must be a high-level clone of some kind. Killing it will only alert the enemy. So don't go doing something stupid and stand down," Gray fur ordered Sniper.

"Wait, that thing is a clone of the target. Earlier, didn't we agree that it was the target? What is going on here? Will someone explain it to me?" Sniper asked in confusion. He couldn't believe a mere card soldier was being so much trouble for him a mighty card emperor.

"Sniper, really? Come on bro, don't you remember the intel it clearly stated that a semi-demigod was hiding in the target's shadow?" Codename flower thief spoke asking Sniper if he forget the intel that was passed to them.

"What does that have to do with this?" Sniper asked the flower thief impatiently. As one of the senior-most members of the team, Sniper found it embarrassing that he was being briefed by the new rookie.

As for the flower thief, he was adjusting himself well in the group as everyone was good to him even the brute sniper did not dare to be excessive when it comes to him. Sometimes he even felt that he had more say in this team than Gray Fur their team leader. Gray fur and the rest of the team were doing a job of keeping Matron's most capable assassin satisfied as per her orders.

"Isn't it obvious? You have been monitoring that humanoid creature the whole time, if that were the real body of the target then by now the semi-demigod hiding in its shadow should have noticed your peeping and tried to pinpoint our location-" before Flower thief could complete his explanation Sniper suddenly interrupted him.

"Wait, you are telling me I almost disclosed our location to the enemy semi-demigod? Gray fur, you knew this right yet why did you ask me to monitor the boy the entire time?" It did not take Sniper much time to blame Gray fur for his actions.

"Relax, even if there were a semi-demigod it would be hard for them to figure out our location thanks to the kid's ability so chill. But it is good to know how you will react to such situations," Gray fur was not happy with Sniper immediately blaming him. He was known to hold his grudges for long so hearing him Sniper's facial color drained in an instant. Gray fur did not become the team leader of the team made by a bunch of rogue card emperors just using his mouth, he had the strength to back it up. Otherwise, brutes like codename Sniper would never follow his orders.

"So," despite Gray fur and the flower thief laying it all out their Sniper did not understand why they claimed the humanoid creature as the clone of the target but not the real target himself.

"What don't you get? Despite you monitoring the target for so long, there was no response from the said semi-demigod hiding in the target's shadow. Which could only mean that there was no semi-demigod hiding in the target's shadow. Why would that be? There was no way despite knowing that there was a threat to his life the target would travel outside the city skirts without any protection at night unless it was just a decoy. Meaning the semi-demigod was out there guarding the real target and the one we were monitoring was just a decoy," the flower thief explained to Sniper in one breath.

"Fuck, so the card soldier played us like a bunch of idiots, how dare he?" Sniper was pissed realizing that the creature that he thought of as the real target all this time turned out to be a clone of the target. Feeling tricked Sniper was pissed and glaring at the clone of the target that was returning to the city he said, "I going to kill this thing."

"What did I just tell you? You killing the clone will only alert the target. He will suspect that his plan to attack the Circle's sun blossom branch was exposed and then he may retreat without going through with this plan to attack the Circle,"  Gray Fur explained in annoyance. But seeing Sniper's face which seemed to still have clouds of doubt he added, "We need the target to wage war with the circle, only then we can assassinate him so that the circle will be blamed for the target's death. This way the non-existing relationship between the southern royal family and the circle will worsen. So, you cannot do anything that would spook the target into chickening out of the attack he planned on the Circle's sun blossom branch, so stay put and don't attack unless I ask you to."

Matron planned to make use of this opportunity to not only kill the orphan of her late best friend but also stir up bad blood between the circle and the southern royal family.

Though Matron's plan was sinister she forgot to take one variable into account i.e the strings that she pulled to get her way were not as invisible as she would like them to be. The news of her and her organization had been exposed to the southern royal family. She did not know that the southern royal family knew about her and her organization more than she would like them to know. Therefore even if her men were successful in pulling off what she had planned she would not get the reaction she was expecting from the southern royal family toward the circle. Knowing what the future held for them the southern royal family was now more cautious than ever and would fall prey to tricks.