Date 21 Mar 2321

Time 18:15

Location Sky Blossom City, Guild Association Mall, Warehouse no.234

Fine Gold Merchants 𝘣𝘦𝑑𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝑙．𝑐𝑜𝘮

The world-renowned integrated shipping company owning a fleet of 708 levitating container vessels as of today.

It is said that 18 years ago Fine Gold Merchants were just small-time merchants in Sky Blossom City about to go bankrupt until a young promising underdog bought the sinking company for peanuts and turned it into the golden goose it is today.

The young promising underdog is none other than the current chairman of Fine Gold Merchants Diana Keith, an orphan slumdog with a heart-winning, struggle filled, story of her rise to power.

Diana Keith is the sky blossom city legend, stories of how a brothel orphan from the western zone slums climbed to the heights which one could only dream of have become the local lore.

There are many other local lores about Diana and her rise to power but the most impressionable one is the Scarlet Parade.

Scarlet Parade, 18 years ago one fateful night, 17-year-old Diana overthrew the Sky Blossom City underworld forces with her hooligan troops of 12,000 high school students including 6,789 card students and 5,211 mortal students.

That night the streets of sky blossom city were dyed red with the blood of gangsters. The city lord had to intervene and implement martial law to deal with the gang wars.

It is said Diana was so charismatic that she single-handedly united the students of all high schools in Sky Blossom City forming the largest gang in the city amounting to 70% of the underworld forces in the city

Until the gang was so big that it swallowed the city’s all underworld forces as a whole, gaining total control over Sky Blossom city underworld.

Diana is one badass S.O.B as they come. After graduating high school she did not go to college instead bought the Fine Gold Merchant climbing to the top of the world’s power ladder.

In the year’s to come many high schoolers have tried to recreate the legend of the Scarlet parade but failed devastatingly.

“Sorry, Wyatt I could not hide your identity.” Apologised Susan.

Looking at two female guests she brought with her I said, “I never asked you to.”

“What?”

“Did I ever ask you to hide my info?”

“No, I thought it was implied.”

“Forget it, won’t you introduce your friends.”

“Oh! She is Debra Khan, my childhood friend and this is…”

Seeing Susan hesitate not knowing how to introduce her, the blonde woman next to Debra said, “For now I am nobody to you but if you pass the test I am the best thing ever happened to you.”

Hearing the arrogance and pride in the blonde woman’s voice with the expressionless face of hers I knew she was the one Susan was apologising for.

Looks like releasing 40 perfect rating F-rank female armour cards in the market created a larger splash than I thought it would. I seem to have underestimated the difficulty behind the creation of a perfect rating card.

Excusing ourselves, Susan explained to me the situation while Corey attended to the guest.

Debra and Susan are more than just childhood friends, they were classmates who graduated high school together.

Since they had not stepped into the card student realm yet they chose to work as a sales executive at guild association mall.

Debra was lucky and stepped into the card student realm 2 years after joining the guild association mall, unlike Susan who stepped into the card student realm just a few days ago.

19-years-old Card apprentice Debra decided to quit as a sales executive and chase her dream of becoming an adventurer. Finally joining a well-known adventure guild, The Raven Guild.

Since Debra was a late bloomer she was offered a 5-year term employment contract with harsher conditions by the raven guild. Yet she chose to sign as with this she would be finally able to achieve her dream and they promised to help her create her origin card using the guild resources if she happens to find her fated ingredient within the employment term.

Rising to the challenge Debra fought all odds and achieved the card soldier realm within 5 years even though she was only a bronze grimoire holder.

Seeing her hard work and achievements the guild was considering offering her a high-level contract and extending her employment term. Debra was also considering extending her contract but things changed in her last mission.

A team of 200 card apprentices were tasked to clear C rank field dungeon Centaur Graveyard and collect undead related ingredients for the guild. Debra’s team was among these card apprentices.

This mission was a walk in the park as 200 card apprentices were overkill for this mission. One of the perks of being a member of a huge guild.

After defeating the field dungeon boss Skeleton Centaur Knight Debra found her first fated ingredient among the remains of the dungeon boss, the femur of the Skeleton Centaur Knight.

Debra was overjoyed to find her first fated ingredient but did not know if she was lucky or unlucky to find her fated ingredient on the last day of her employment term.

Thanks to the contract Debra was able to get the fate ingredient without spending a penny but since her contract ended the very next day she was not able to create her origin card using the guild resources.

Debra was satisfied with just getting her fated ingredient. But the offer for extending her contract term she was waiting for never came.

Turns out the guild valued Debra but not enough to gamble guild resources to help create her origin card and they decided against extending her employment term.

As a card soldier with 5 years of experience, Debra had a good resume but having a fated ingredient was her baggage, Debra would easily be able to join any guild if she did not demand the creation of an origin card using the guild resources. Since no guild was willing to gamble a small fortune in helping her create an origin card.

Finding a fate ingredient is a very rare incident not many card apprentices find it. Knowing this the guilds all around the world utilized the promise of creating the origin card as bait in their contract to lure fresh blood and it works every time.

Susan only knew about Debra finding her fate ingredient but not about her being unemployed. So after knowing the complete story Susan backed off in understanding.

Just when Susan had given up any hope of turning Debra into a client. The blonde woman crashed their reunion.