Card Apprentice Daily Log

Chapter 2656: Petruth Rune

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Way Beyond, Unknown

Listening to Petra, I hurriedly checked my body. Seeing that I hadn’t turned to stone, I said, "I didn’t turn into stone. That proves I didn’t lie to you and that I’m telling the truth."

"Hmm, I don’t know," Petra said, squinting as she stared at me intensely. Then she admitted, "I’m unable to use my Petruth Rune¹ on you. I wonder if it’s because of your mutated ego gem."

She continued to stare at me hard before remarking, "You aren’t lying to me, right?"

"I’m not lying to you," I replied awkwardly, only for Petra to stare even harder before letting out a long sigh and complaining, "This isn’t fair. Why can’t I use my Petruth Rune on you? Now how am I supposed to decide whether I should kill you or not?"

"Would it help if I said I was friends with another supreme being?" I asked, thinking that Petra was just as innocent as Bloodette, except that the former possessed the ability to determine whether someone was lying or telling the truth. That combined with her prowess, no card apprentice would dare to cross her.

"Who?" Petra asked eagerly. "None I know would befriend a card apprentice."

"The Blood Supreme, Bloodette," I revealed grandly, only to find Petra’s gossipy expression instantly petrified into indifference, then hardened into a grim one as she replied, "You’re friends with the Blood Supreme. That’s great, but where did you last see her, and when?"

"Why do you ask like that?" I countered instead of answering, having sensed killing intent in Petra’s eyes, along with a trace of disgust, whenever I mentioned Bloodette.

"Ask like how? I don’t understand," Petra replied stubbornly, deliberately feigning ignorance as she forced a smile onto her face.

"Bloodette," I said again. Noticing the flicker of disgust that crossed Petra’s face at the sound of the name, I immediately pointed it out. "There. That look on your face. What was that?"

"Where? What look? This is how I normally look," Petra insisted, continuing to pretend.

So I casually looked past her and waved my hand. "Hi, Bloodette. Did you come to rescue me?"

"Bloodette, you bitch!" Petra suddenly screamed. She spun around, frantically searching for Bloodette, and swore, "Today, I will kill you for sure—"

Unable to find even a trace of Bloodette, Petra quickly turned back to me and demanded, "Where is she? Where did she go?"

I slowly shook my head and, meeting her gaze, pressed, "Are you still planning to deny that something’s wrong?"

"You tricked me," Petra said, staring at me in shock as she retreated several steps, as if I were the plague. It was clear she had realized that without her Petruth Rune, she was extremely vulnerable to deception.

Seeing Petra stare at me like a spooked gargoyle backed into a corner, I knew she was weighing whether to kill me or keep me alive to extract Bloodette’s location. Knowing that her Petruth Rune didn’t work on me, she had abruptly shifted from a social butterfly into something far more socially awkward and withdrawn. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t enjoying the look on her face. Still, I had to act before she reached a hasty decision out of desperation.

"Petra, why do you hate Bloodette?"

Petra continued to stare at me in silence, offering no answer. So I pressed further. "I swear, if you tell me why you hate Bloodette, I’ll tell you where to find her."

"You swear?" Petra asked cautiously. Seeing me nod with a gentle smile, she finally said, "She killed me and my friends for the sake of a card apprentice. We planned to hunt her and that card apprentice down, but for some reason we couldn’t sense her. So, I believed she was dead and chose not to descend. Until you mentioned her name. Now I assume she was hiding in your small settlement all this time with that card apprentice. Just think about it make me angry"

"No, she isn’t with that human. She’s imprisoned by them in a dungeon seal, unable to break free or even die. She has no recollection of her past and is completely alone. Trust me, she’s in more misery than any of you could possibly put her through," I said, despite having no idea which card apprentice Petra was referring to. I wonder if it was the one Bloodette saw in her vision while helping Sarah. Besides, I shared this information because I hoped it would either temper her anger or push her toward pity, or even cruel amusement, at Bloodette’s suffering.

"How dare you card apprentices seal and harm a supreme being? This is outrageous!!!" Petra cried aloud, as if she hadn’t been shouting about killing Bloodette moments earlier. I was thoroughly confused, unable to make sense of what was going on in that stone head of hers. Then she suddenly looked at me and asked, "You’re not lying to me, right?"

"No, I wouldn’t lie about something like this. As I said earlier, she’s a friend of mine, and I’m helping her break out of the dungeon she’s sealed in. I’m one of the good ones. If you want, I can bring over a clone of her as proof. Maybe seeing you will jog her memories," I assured her with the most charming smile I could manage.

"No need to bring her clone. Take me to the dungeon seal. I’ll break it open and free her, and once she has recalled her memories and grown used to her freedom, I’ll kill her. That will teach her not to kill me and my friends," Petra declared, laying bare her intentions for Bloodette.

"No, you can’t go to the five regions. If you do, you’d be breaking the treaty between supreme beings and card apprentices," I said, making it a priority to avoid a scenario where Petra would rampage through Sky Blossom City in an attempt to free Bloodette.