Catastrophe Card King

“What’s most distressing is that there are many young masters and noblemen, along with their families, pouring in for marriage alliances. But, I truly don’t want to marry, at least not until I find a boy I like. Right now, I just want to manage my commerce guild well, and earn lots and lots of money… Ah, I can’t say these words to anyone else. I can only tell you. I’m sorry, Mr. Sunny, please forgive my ramblings.”

“If there’s a chance, I’m looking forward to meeting you face-to-face. Ah… sorry for my impropriety, it seems that a lady should not speak in such a manner. Simply writing this sentence is enough to make me nervous. Hahaha… I don’t care. I’m not a lady, I am just myself. I very much look forward to your reply, Mr. Sunny.”

“— Anne”

The letter ended here.

But seeing this, Leonard Churchill broke out into a full grin.

The words that followed demonstrated a modern woman’s awakening: not wanting to get married, just wanting to make money!

“Seems like I may have groomed a future big shot…”

Leonard smiled softly.

Based on the content of the letter, Anne truly had the potential to become a commerce mogul.

And this is absolutely a protagonist’s plot.

Forced into exile by her own family, only to achieve success and return to prove them wrong.

Leonard is genuinely happy for his pen pal.

Rather than seeing her alone and drifting about, forced to confront reality and be married off, he’d prefer she carve out her own path.

…

At the end, Anne expressed her desire to meet in a subtle way.

The straightforward invitation belied the shyness inherent in her words.

A girl from a noble family inviting a strange man to meet, well, that’s certainly not ladylike.

Pen pals, huh…

They are chatting quite freely; a meetup is the next logical step.

As a dimension-traveler, Leonard found nothing strange about it.

Strange, however, was the wrinkle between his brows after reading the letters.

“Strange…”

Leonard reread the letters again and confirmed his suspicion.

There seemed to be a problem with the timeline in the letters…

When were these letters actually written?

“The time gap between these two letters seems rather big. From breaking off the engagement to being exiled and starting her own guild, it must have taken at least a year and half, if not longer…”

This was the problem Leonard spotted.

He has only been reading these letters for a month or two.

But the timeline conveyed by the letters suggests a much longer period.

“Could it be that the time of writing the letters does not match the time on my end?”

Having experienced previously the “time acceleration field” and “time retrospection” in the Cavern Mystery, Leonard now has some unique insights into time.

Hence the suspicions.

But on second thought, it’s not that bizarre.

If the letters could appear out of thin air, defying the laws of “space”, then it makes sense that “time” could also behave anomalously.

Were they already completed and were only seen by me due to certain specific factors?

And what about that “stamp” mentioned in the letter?

Leonard didn’t quite understand.

Maybe a face-to-face meeting could dispel the doubts?

The thought appeared to fill him with anticipation.

If I can live to see that day.

At this thought, Leonard penned his reply: “I’m delighted to receive your letter, and I’ve read it carefully. Knowing you’re well brings me great joy… But I have to go to a very dangerous place, and I may not be able to receive your letters anymore. If I survive, I look forward to meeting you, Miss Anne. Regardless, I’m grateful for having met you in my lifetime.”

The reply was brief.

Much was spoken from the heart.

Earlier, he had the notion to treat his pen pal as a source of useful knowledge.

He had wanted to explore the potential benefits.

Just like the last time.

He remembered replying to her, asking this clearly privileged Miss Anne about how to master the curse seal given his circumstances.

There was no response, probably forgotten or maybe there was none.

Now, with the acquisition of the useless longsword, understanding the curse seal was just a matter of time.

Sadly, Leonard didn’t much mind now.

With a life expectancy of only three months, his opportunistic thoughts had faded.

If I can live longer, Leonard was genuinely interested in meeting her face-to-face.

If he did perish in the Alternate Dimension, she would probably be one of the few people in this world who would remember and think about him.

Anne.

Worth remembering.

After writing his reply, with a quick look and pulling back his thoughts, he put the bookmark back into the book.

He felt this might just be his last letter.

He stayed hidden for most of the day, only then did his body gradually recover enough to fight.

…

One day, in the ruins of a city street.

A brown-haired hunter carrying a longsword on his back mixed in with the returning crowd and entered Lion City.

He glanced at the warrant displayed most prominently near the city gate and Leonard grinned.

In front of the notice board, people gathered to have a good look.

“My goodness, what’s with this perp? It’s been less than half a month since I returned to the city.”

“The bounty was only at one billion after he murdered Governor Saul Miller last time, what on earth did this guy do for the bounty to skyrocket to five billion? Increased to five million for providing information? Sheesh… a walking treasury.”

“Let’s just forget about it. If the prisoners with such a high bounty were easy to catch, the nobles would have caught him by now. He must have some extraordinary abilities.”

“Isn’t he just a Second Tier Card Master? How powerful can he be? Hey, do you think he’s kidnapped some noble family’s daughter? I heard that a certain Elder Miss from the Lionheart family has run away from home…”