Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 9: The Battle of Nobles and the White Succubus
Marlon was in a foul mood. After all, his face was plastered with at least twenty long strips of colored paper, each fluttering like a tiny flag in the sea breeze. It was impossible not to feel ridiculous standing there, a human banner of shame.
But then he glanced across the table—and instantly, his spirits lifted. Opposite him sat the clawed Druid Master, whose face was so thoroughly covered in paper strips that only two silvery eyes gleamed defiantly from beneath the chaos. Seeing that, Marlon couldn’t help but feel a little better.
“666, 777, 888 with a 4, 10, J—Plane!”
Feeling a surge of confidence, Marlon swept half the cards in his hand into a daring “big plane,” slapping them onto the table with a flourish. Once this move was made, he only had a four-card Q bomb left—victory was practically guaranteed!
Feeling assured of his win, Marlon shot a sidelong glance at the small fox-girl, Amy, seated to his immediate right. Her face bore only three blue strips of paper, yet her tiny brow furrowed ever so slightly in concentration. Seeing her like that, Marlon felt even calmer.
Leaning back in relaxed triumph, Marlon allowed himself a moment to study the real architect of his current predicament: Adela, kneeling gracefully beside Amy, a sly strategist guiding the fox-girl’s every move.
Adela had an uncanny talent for this card game—no, the “Noble Duel” as it was now called.
Hmm… Marlon recalled that the Druid Master had once said something about demons: none of them were incapable of calculation.
And indeed, Adela, who bore the purple-gold demonic eyes of her lineage, must have inherited at least a moderately strong demonic bloodline. Could her genius in the “Noble Duel” truly be a manifestation of that blood?
Lost in these musings, Marlon barely noticed when the fox-girl, her brow now relaxed into a crescent of concentration, drew four cards from her hand and lightly placed them atop Marlon’s recently played “big plane.”
“Bomb.”
Unable to speak aloud, the fox-girl’s intent was voiced by Adela, who smiled faintly as she continued, “Four Ks. Double the stakes.”
“I pass! I don’t want to play!”
The Druid Master boomed. In this round, Marlon was a “noble,” while the Druid Master and fox-girl were “commoners.” Having paid the heavy price of paper strips and fully grasped the rules of the “Noble Duel,” the Druid Master naturally refused to overshadow his ally, Amy.
“I’ll pass too,” Marlon said, lowering his gaze to confirm the four Ks bomb, before choosing to pass as well.
Hmph, let the little one have her fun for now.
With no one willing to challenge, it was Amy’s turn again. Guided by Adela, she placed two more cards on the table:
“Colored Joker plus Black-and-White Joker.” Adela nodded at the cards before announcing, “Double Joker, quadruple the multiplier.”
“No way?!”
Marlon’s eyes bulged in disbelief. He instinctively glanced at the few remaining cards in Amy’s hand and felt a creeping sense of doom.
“If you think things will go badly, they will…”
Sure enough, following this unwritten law of fate, disaster struck. Amy placed her remaining cards down:
“333, 444 with pairs of 8 and 10… That’s it.”
Again, Adela spoke for the fox-girl, her crescent-moon eyes sparkling as she explained, “All done, Master Marlon. You’ve lost again. Base triple, times double, times quadruple, times double… a total of… forty-eight paper strips!”
As she spoke, Adela’s hands naturally reached for the messy pile of cards strewn across the table.
Forty-eight strips?!
Marlon’s face turned green. If forty-eight more strips were added, his face would practically resemble the Stars and Stripes of America!
Desperate to prevent this human tragedy, Marlon’s mind raced, furiously plotting a way to escape his imminent fate.
And then, in that moment of panic, a miraculous thing happened. His mind began to replay the round of the “Noble Duel,” scene by scene, as if in slow motion, replaying the entire sequence of events.
At last, Marlon understood exactly how he had lost this round…
“Wait!” Marlon leapt up, grabbing Adela’s hand just as she tried to destroy the evidence. “You little trickster, Adela! Cheating, huh? I clearly played three 8s—where did that pair of 8s come from?!”
“Ah…” Adela’s hand trembled violently, unsure whether it was from being caught cheating or from Marlon’s sudden, firm grasp.
“I-I didn’t cheat! Maybe… maybe you, Master Marlon, used some other cards to fake the 8s… Let go of me!”
But then, Adela shook her head vigorously, refusing to admit any trickery. Her enchanting gaze met Marlon’s, and for a brief, disorienting moment, his heart fluttered dangerously close to surrendering.
Yet the feeling passed quickly, and Marlon shook it from his mind.
“This… is a passive trigger of innate demonic charm!” shouted the Druid Master, face covered in strips of paper, his tiny eyes wide with excitement. “Adela, I misjudged you! Your demonic blood… it comes from a corrupted Hell Charm Demon!”
Behind the Druid Master, his animal companion, the flamboyantly masked wolverine Lukas, bared its fangs and crouched as if ready to pounce.
“Calm down! Take it easy, Old Kang! Even if that’s true, Adela could never be evil!”
Marlon instinctively stepped in front of Adela, shielding her.
“That’s not true!” Adela protested, now instinctively defending herself behind Marlon. “My mother is not an evil Hell Charm Demon! She’s a White Charm Demon!”
Though both Hell Charm Demons and White Charm Demons were of the charm demon lineage, they were as different as dark elves and forest elves.
In this world, any race could fall into corruption, even the most devout holy warriors could become dark guardians. Yet true demons existed who had abandoned slaughter and sought the light.
Those light-seeking demons were called White Demons, and the White Charm Demons were the rarest among them.
“White Charm Demon?” The Druid Master’s expression softened. “Adela, I can hear your sincerity. And be thankful, for Master Marlon trusts you so completely, that even the natural charm magic of a demon cannot deceive his… soul of a mind sorcerer.”