Chapter 3214: Who Done It?

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Azorheim, Temporal Cave Valley, Temporal Cave No. ES3030

Going through Gideon Grim’s detailed report that a Ruler-Class force was planning to buy the rights to the Card World from the Seven Princes of Hell’s dark faction and that Belphegor was against it, my first thought was that one of the biggest variables I was worried about had transpired.

To be honest, I thought they would find a partner to fund and aid in the invasion of the Card World, but this possibility was worse than that.

I was still having difficulty fathoming how the card apprentices had defeated a notorious semi-Ruler-Class dark faction like the Ten Commandments and saved the Card World from the first demonic invasion. So, the fact that the second demonic invasion could come from a Ruler-Class faction... even if I were to somehow defeat them, the scale of destruction to the Card World, and the Five Regions, would be beyond my control.

A new Ruler-Class force was on a completely different scale from the likes of a semi-Ruler-Class force like the Snow Elves, who were struggling to gain Ruler-Class status, or the Ten Commandments, who were notorious among semi-Ruler-Class organizations, let alone the likes of the Seven Princes of Hell.

After the failure of the Ten Commandments dark faction, none of the semi-Ruler-Class factions were interested in trying their luck at invading the Card World, while the Ruler-Class forces found it too small for their appetites. As such, its rights remained with the Demon Merchant Code, gathering dust for almost a millennium, until Belphegor, who initially wanted to invade the realm to satisfy his massive ego after being tricked by me, decided to do so again, this time because his daughter, Corey Park, had reincarnated in the Card World.

However, for a Ruler-Class force to show interest in the Card World now, and that too, by going as far as to pay a markup to buy its rights from another dark faction, they definitely had a motive.

Unless the Card World had some big secret I didn’t know about, I believed it had to be the Owlape Empire that had approached the Seven Princes of Hell to buy the Demon Merchant Code’s transportation rights to the Card World.

However, being discreet wasn’t the style of the Owlape Empire. Take Deviant Devil, for example. Some other crown prince with his dark fetishes would try to hide them from the public to protect the reputation of his family, citizens, and empire. Instead, he wore the title Deviant Devil proudly, while his Empire did its best to support his disgusting endeavors.

If they wanted to use the rights to the Card World to come after me, they wouldn’t try to hide behind a confidentiality clause. They loved spreading fear in the hearts of the prey they were hunting. So, this was simply out of character for them... unless they had a strong reason for coming after me discreetly.

Come to think of it, this whole situation with the Owlape Empire was bizarre. Since when did the great Owlape Empire begin making appeals to the Demon Merchant Code to deal with a non-native demon merchant? It was completely unlike them... unless there was a reason for them to do so.

Why was the Owlape Empire dealing with this matter so cautiously?

What were they worried about?

And was it really them who had approached the Seven Princes of Hell to buy the Demon Merchant Code’s transportation rights to the Card World?

I guessed these were the questions I needed to get answers to during the Demon Merchant Code hearing.

Right now, the important thing for me to do was to stop the Seven Princes of Hell from selling the rights to the Card World.

Thinking of this, I was a little relieved that I hadn’t sent the Saintess, Redfall, along with Corey to the Dark Realm to attack the various territories and establishments of the Seven Princes of Hell using the information provided by the Devil Merchant Muth Diya.

If the Seven Princes of Hell were dealing with an attack from an unknown force in the Dark Realm, its faction leaders would have sold the rights to the Card Realm to the Ruler-Class force that had approached them to buy them on the spot, despite Belphegor’s protests.

In a way, I should be thanking Belphegor too.

However, I didn’t think Belphegor would be able to stop the other faction leaders from selling the rights to the Card World to the buyer. The faction leaders had never actually considered Belphegor’s protest. The only reason they had given him a day to change their minds was that they were stalling to see if the buyer would increase the price.

I understood the faction leaders’ decision. They were being logical. ’How could a couple of Devil Merchants let go of an opportunity to make easy money?’

But I didn’t understand Belphegor’s decision. I felt he was being highly illogical. ’No matter his grudge against Corey or me, how could he let go of an opportunity to make a ton of money doing nothing while someone else takes care of the nuisance troubling him?’

What was Belphegor planning here? He knew his fellow faction leaders better than I did. So, he should have known that they had already decided to sell the rights to the Card World, regardless of whatever evidence he provided to support his argument against selling the rights to the Card Realm.

He should have known that lobbying the other faction leaders not to sell the rights to the Card World was a fool’s errand, regardless of what he offered them or what Gideon had to say about the riches of the Card World.

I had no idea what Belphegor was planning to do. I planned to do what I could to stop the Seven Princes of Hell from selling the rights to the Card World to an unknown Ruler-Class force.

But the problem was, how did I go about it?

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