Drawing Manga in a Romance Fantasy – Chapter 131

In the world of nobles, there are various manners an adult male noble must possess.

For example, while it’s acceptable to borrow cigarettes, it is considered extraordinarily rude to ask to borrow a cutter or matches.

Recently, however, there has been one more manner that male nobles are required to uphold.

“What? You want to borrow my deck? You’re not someone I should associate with.”

That was not asking others to lend them their deck.

“No… I just forgot my dedicated deck. Don’t you always have an extra deck?”

“Don’t pretend. A duelist forgetting their deck?”

Tsk.

When the noble, who had been getting angrier, revealed the inside of his jacket, the attention of those around him instantly focused on him.

“Is that!”

“Isn’t that a special pocket only awarded to the winner of the Somerset Goods Store’s duel tournament?”

“To have that… this is a true duelist!”

The man, enjoying the attention on him, pulled his deck out from the specially sewn pocket inside his jacket.

Holding up the topmost card, he exclaimed, “Don’t you even have the pride of a duelist? How can you ask to borrow a deck that is as precious as your life?”

“No… I just wanted to enjoy a simple game at the Duel Tavern…”

At this point, the man who had requested to borrow the deck had turned into a level of public enemy worthy of execution.

He simply wanted to relax with a drink while playing the popular card game of the day.

Yet the eyes of those around him were colder than ice.

“Those who try to slip in forbidden cards usually act like this.”

“Aren’t they just resellers? I’ve heard that there are those hoarding cards these days, aiming for quick fortunes.”

“Whatever the case, he’s someone who doesn’t know etiquette.”

Even while the whispers filled the air, the man could not remain brazen, and he eventually fled the scene like a thief escaping.

*

“I’m not someone who usually speaks like this.”

“Yes, please feel free to speak openly, Yustaf.”

After the academy had reopened, Rupert was called to the principal’s office by Yustaf in a sudden turn of events after delivering his usual lectures to the students.

What exactly did Yustaf want to talk about? It was only small talk about various recent news while sipping a cup of tea that wasted time.

Finally, as if he had made up his mind to get to the point, Yustaf paused for a moment before speaking.

“Is there any way to obtain the Ultimate Rare card of the Dark Sorcerer?”

“Excuse me?”

Bang!

“Honestly, aren’t the business practices of the Yuren Merchant Association extreme? I’ve opened more than a hundred card packs! How is it possible that I haven’t gotten a single Ultimate Rare card of the Dark Sorcerer?”

“Please calm down, Yustaf!”

“Do you know how frustrating this is?”

Rupert was taken aback by Yustaf’s excited demeanor, which he had never seen before.

The man who had remained so composed during the Abyss Cult incident was now throwing a fit over just one card.

And the fact that what he wanted was just an Ultimate Rare card seemed unbelievable.

‘Is it just one?’

Following the end of the serialization of <White Whale>, <King of Cards> started serialization immediately, and since it was planned for commercialization from the start, the product release was also rapid.

– When it comes to cards, their surface materials must be classified by grade.

The technical skills accumulated during the development of animations greatly helped in this process.

‘More than anything, we need to make people want to own these cards.’

The classification of cards proposed by Rupert was divided into common, rare, super rare, and ultimate rare stages. Even cards with the same name varied greatly in value.

Common cards were just ordinary, unprocessed designs, while rare cards had a slight silver sheen to their names that could go unnoticed unless looked at closely.

On the other hand, cards from the super rare category were distinctly identifiable.

With their unique characteristic of gleaming names and illustrations, anyone could tell they were precious.

And the Ultimate Rare card, exactly what Yustaf was desperately hoping for, was…

“So you already have the Super Rare Dark Sorcerer, huh?”

“That’s not enough! Harun keeps coming to brag about his, and it’s driving me insane!”

“Wait? Harun you say?”

“Yes! How on earth did he obtain an Ultimate Rare card?”

Yustaf began to long-windedly explain just how he had been toyed with by Harun.

‘Oh, do you play the King of Cards game too, Yustaf?’


‘That’s right. It’s not bragging, but I’ve never lost to the academy professors in a match.’


‘Indeed, your card game skills are impressive. Would you like to have a match with me?’


‘Sounds good.’

Yustaf felt somewhat confident.

Some might dismiss card games as a silly pastime for kids, but to him, that was far from the truth.

‘You can’t just throw out strong cards from the start; it’s important to build a solid foundation for the later turns.’

Strong cards all had difficult summoning conditions. Therefore, he concluded that it was best to play defensively at first while setting up winning cards.

However,

“Activate trap card! Choose one card from your opponent’s hand and send it to the graveyard!”

“Activate magic card! All demon monsters on the opponent’s field are sealed for 3 turns.”

“Activate Harpy’s Feather! Destroy all magic and trap cards on the opponent’s field.”

The duel with Harun was completely different.

The plans he had set to draw the Super Rare Dark Sorcerer card he cherished were shattered by the multitude of special effect cards that Harun unleashed from the start.

Even when attempting to counterattack, every card he played was promptly obliterated by Harun.

“This is it. Sacrifice three monster cards on the field to perform a special summon of the Dark Sorcerer!”

In doing so, Harun revealed his ultimate card, which was none other than Yustaf’s favorite card, the Dark Sorcerer.

Yustaf rubbed his eyes, wishing to deny reality.

‘This… this cannot be!’

“You recognize it, huh? This isn’t just any Dark Sorcerer, it’s the Ultimate Rare Dark Sorcerer!”

The Super Rare Dark Sorcerer he had was already a card considered enviable due to its difficulty in acquisition.

Now, the Ultimate Rare Dark Sorcerer Harun summoned was an unprecedentedly rare card he had only heard about.

‘How the heck did this happen?’

“I got lucky with the draw. Didn’t that happen in the comics, too?”

– The cards choose the duelist!

This was the memorable line the protagonist uttered towards his defeated opponent in the new hit series <Card King>, which rivaled <Van Helsing>.

In an instant, Yustaf’s last shred of pride crumbled.

At least he was a person of some dignity, having built his character over a long time; had he been any less tolerant, Harun would have become the target of Yustaf’s magical experiments that day.

And since that disastrous defeat, Yustaf repeatedly pondered to discover the reasons for his loss.

“The Ultimate Rare cards even have the effect descriptions coated!”

“Yes, that’s correct…”

“If only I too had an Ultimate Rare Dark Sorcerer, I would never have lost to Harun!”

Yustaf passionately declared that his defeat was solely due to the difference in card grade.

But to Rupert, his excuse sounded utterly ludicrous.

‘No, the rarity of the card doesn’t correlate with its effectiveness!’

“So I’ll pay any amount—please sell me your Ultimate Rare Dark Sorcerer!!!”

Now, Yustaf was shaking Rupert’s shoulders, nearly begging as if it were a threat.

*

“Freeze!”

“Ugh!”

“You must know that touching the products is an unforgivable crime, right?”

“I’m sorry! Please just let me see them once!”

“Take him away!”

The vast grounds of the Somerset Mansion were beginning to become obscured by the newly built structures.

The newly constructed building was a factory solely intended for the production of one item.

Which was nothing other than a special factory for producing cards.

“Sigh… Was it a mistake to hire new staff due to a manpower shortage?”

Returning home after work, Rupert was lamenting while talking with Esteban in the reception room.

“It can’t be helped. The previous hires were all residents of the Somerset Territory, so I could trust them, but now…”

The Somerset Workshop did not have the capacity to handle card production with only the original staff and was forced to recruit additional personnel.

Of course, most of the employees worked diligently, but due to the rapid popularity of the <Card King> card game, there were occasional employees trying to sneak away expensive cards for secret sales, which caused trouble.

“It was clear that kids would love this, but I never expected adults would get so immersed in card games too.”

“In truth, adults enjoy these things too; they just hide it and pretend not to know.”

Rupert, responding to Esteban’s regret that they should have prepared better if they had anticipated such success, thought to himself that he was frankly glad that this alternate world wasn’t dismissing comics as something only children read.

Considering the situation in Korea, it was a staggering difference when it came to the status of comics in this world.

Having lagged behind in cultural openness, the conservative former Korea harbored a predominantly critical view towards comics.

This trend continued to the present day, making it hard for comics to shake off their negative perception as harmful material only for children.

But in this world, with a different starting line, comics had confidently established themselves as a part of culture.

Not just a medium for children, but a world where people of all ages enjoyed comics.

In some ways, this could be the biggest change that Rupert had created.