The card emperors and semi-demigods in the audience finally understood why Agatha had blatantly used her power to disturb the space surrounding the auction house, it was to stop Chris Ainsworth from leaving. Leaving them wondering why Chris would try to escape. However, listening to the Silver Milk Fraudster's words they felt something much juicier and entertaining was afoot here.
"Well, let us continue with the challenge, I'm your next opponent. Do you need a few minutes to recover to your peak condition?" I said not bothering to reveal Chris's real identity yet. It would not be too late to do that once I have defeated him. And this was the one last thing I had to do to put Chris in his place and make sure Chris doesn't get off this scout free.
If I were to capture Chris when the challenge was going on without defeating him, he would remain undefeated, and people's speculation that the Southern Card Creationist Association was accusing him of false crime because they cannot defeat him the honest way will start to sound a lot pausable. So to make this kill clean I had to defeat Chris in his challenge before arresting him for conspiring against the Southern Region.
"You are my next opponent, I don't need to be at my peak to defeat you. Let us get right to it," Chris answered wondering why the boy was not acting the same as before he turned back time. He felt that this change must be brought about by his abrupt use of long-distance teleportation.
"I appreciate your confidence but after winning the challenge I don't want to hear you whine that you only lost because you were not at your peak. So, go take a moment to adjust your physical and mental state," I ordered Chris to heal his body and recharge his mental strength. Because I did not want to leave a way out for Chris after I defeat him.
"You, a card soldier hope to defeat me, in your dreams. Do you even have a golden grimoire? "Chris jeered staring at the boy and then turning to the audience he yelled, "Does the southern card creationist association not have any capable card creationist that you have to resort to sending in a card creationist of card soldier?"
Having calmed down, Chris realized that in a sense he had done nothing wrong. So what if he was the Prince of the Western Region in disguise, there were no rules that forbid a Western Prince from challenging the Southern card creationist association. As for his siblings, as long as he remains undefeated and doesn't humiliate the Western region he would still have a step to stand on. Chris was clear that as long as he remains undefeated he still had the chance to get out of this mess scout free.
"Chirs, I give you that you have some talent when it comes to card creation, enough for the southern card creationist association to finally take you seriously and send me. So, why don't you quit wagging your tongue and get prepared for the challenge," The more Chris talked big the more devastating his defeat would be so I did not mind provoking him.
However, Chris did not fall for my provocation, instead, he calmly responded, "Fine, I hope your mastery of card creation is half as good as your mastery over your tongue."
Chris did not hold much regard for the silver milk fraudster, but seeing him purposefully trying to provoke him Chris understood, the boy was up to something or at least the hand behind him was. Therefore, he chose to take adjust his breath and recharge to his peak condition, for what was coming next.
In front of everyone, Chris took out expensive potions from his storage card and began to use them to regain his strength, recharge his mind, and heal any damage from the backlash which was the direct result of his teleportation ability being forcefully canceled mid-way.
After 15 minutes or so, Chris's energy rose sharply and then stabilized. Then glanced at the boy who was waiting for him patiently and said, "I am ready, let us get this over with."
"Good," I nodded and soon the staff of the card association brought two sets of random ingredients, one for me and the other for Chris.
As per the challenge we both need to use these random ingredients to create the best cards we can think of. Our cards will be graded based on rank, rating, durability, skills, time-taken for card creation, and lastly innovation. Of course, the card with the better grade wins.
The referee verified both sets of the random ingredients provided to Chris and Me to make sure no foul play was involved while the announcer announced the random ingredients provided for this round of the challenge, "Folks, the random ingredients provided are,
Bloody Veins - G-rank, Mortal Grade
Nyon Rope - G-rank, Mortal Grade
Common Core - G-rank, Mortal Grade."
Learning all the random ingredients provided were of the mortal grade, the crowd that had just gotten silent, suddenly burst into heated discussion. The influencers started to accuse the Southern Card Creationist Association of being partial towards the Silver Milk Fraudster.
The public already held a prejudice against the boy for his reputation of being a fraud and they all looked down on him for his Card Soldeir realm. They felt that the reason why the Southern Card Creationist Association provided Mortal Grade ingredients for the challenge was that the boy would not be able to use Rare-Grade ingredients because of his lacking realm.
Listening to the audience's speculation, the announcer soon jumped into action to earn his keep, "Folks, these random ingredients of Mortal-Grade favor the card creationist with higher realm because the higher the mental strength greater the command of card creationist on the ingredients. Considering the difference in the grade of the ingredients to the card creationist's realm, Master Chris has more advantage than Master Wyatt."