Card Apprentice Daily Log

Date- 12 Oct 22XX

Time- 17:45

Location- Central Region, Capital city, Duskborn Mansion

Since her husband was not fit to carry out her ambition, Ellen’s mother burdened her only daughter with her dreams by forcing a four-year-old to train to pass the entrance test of a prestigious kindergarten with marks more than enough to be awarded a full scholarship.

Why do this? Because this particular kindergarten was where the big families of the capital of the central region would send their heirs to study and mostly make connections with the other family heirs. With her husband’s salary, Ellen’s mother couldn’t afford admission fees to the prestigious kindergarten so she could only put her hopes on her daughter getting a full scholarship. Fortunately, her daughter unlike her husband did not let her down.

Since then Ellen’s mother has tried various methods to get invited to the houses or parties of the other kindergarten moms but was not successful as the rich moms were snobbish, no surprise there, and saw Ellen’s mother as the poor mother of only scholarship student in the whole kindergarten.

Finally, Ellen’s mom could only choose to stop trying to get close to the rich moms from the prestigious kinder garden feeling that she would come off as desperate and trying too hard. But she did not give up thinking, ‘so what if you guys don’t invite me to your fancy parties, your children will.’ And the only way that would happen was if they were best friends with her daughter.

Being the ‘that Kid’ that every kid’s parent compares their kid with, Ellen had difficulty making friends at the kindergarten except for this creepy kid from the Baylor family that kept following her around. But thanks to this creepy kid Ellen did not have to eat her lunch by herself.

Ellen’s mother did not blame her daughter for her lack of friends because she knew how hard her daughter was trying to keep her full scholarship. So she took it upon herself to help her daughter make many friends who will invite her to their mother’s fancy parties.

Soon she thought of various ideas that would help her daughter become popular among other kids in the kindergarten. Some worked some failed but non got her the invitation to one of those fancy parties held by the kindergarten’s rich moms. Until she got the brilliant idea to get her daughter a cute monster pet, whose attraction the kids cannot escape. Though this idea put a big hole in their savings it worked, just yesterday, one of the kids invited her daughter to the pool party their parents were hosting this weekend. Since her daughter was invited she too was naturally invited.

…

While the kids were playing, Sansa’s father and Ellen’s father were having a heated discussion in another hall.

“Are you sure about this?” Sansa’s father asked as he gave Ellen’s father a hard stare.

“I am, Commander,” Ellen’s father replied firmly.

“You know it doesn’t have to be like this, I can lend you the money. And return it when possible,” Sansa’s father persuaded Ellen’s father.

“Commander, I know you mean well but I already owe you a lot. So, I can only beg you to let me do this,” Ellen’s father didn’t waiver from his decision and instead begged Sansa’s father to stop persuading him.

“I told you that woman was trouble when we first saw her at the tavern,” Sansa’s father said in dissatisfaction, after letting out a sigh he added, “And couldn’t you just learn to say no to her already? What were you thinking when you spent a such huge chunk of your savings on that monster pet?”

“She said that it would help Ellen make friends and form connections that would help her further in her life,” Ellen’s father answered without bothering to defend his wife.

“Connections? Are you hearing yourself? Ellen is just five-years-old, god dammit,” Sansa’s father said in frustration.

“Commander, please understand. I am not doing this for my wife, I am doing this for Ellen, this is the happiest I have seen her in a while. You should have seen her when went to adopt the monster pet, she was so happy and excited. Buying that monster pet for her, I felt like a real father after quite some time. So please let me do this for her,” Ellen’s father said hoping that Sansa’s father would support his idea after hearing his reason.

“No, I will not. That day beyond that land we made a pact. A pact that we will survive, be there for our families, and never return to that goddamned place. If I let you do this I will be letting down our brothers that gave their lives so that at least those of us that survived would uphold the pact. Don’t bring this up ever again. Otherwise, I will not hesitate to turn you in to creep if that is what is required of me to stop you,” Sansa’s father said resolutely, his firm eyes yelled out his resolve. It seems he really would not hesitate to turn Ellen’s father into a cripple if he continued to pester him to follow through with this decision resulting in breaking the pact with their martyred comrades. Sansa’s father made it clear to Ellen’s father that he planned to uphold his pact with their dead comrades and would not hesitate to use force to have Ellen’s father do the same.

“…” Ellen’s father shook his head dejectedly. It appeared he had already expected this outcome. So decided to use what he wished he wouldn’t have to use but was interpreted by Sansa’s father, “Though I can’t give you my permission to go back to that hell, I will dig up some old favors and try to make other arrangements. So give me some time and meanwhile don’t do anything to make things worse.”

“Commander, please don’t, you have already done a lot for us,” Ellen’s father said hurriedly.

“If you really believe and mean that then come work with me, I would be lucky to have a man with your skill set working with me. And this will also solve your money problems,” This was the hundredth time Sansa’s father had asked Ellen’s father to come work with him, and each time Ellen’s father rejected him saying, “Commander, you know Duskborn family rules don’t tolerate it.”