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Eventually, the third match came around. This time it was a Paladin player against a Death Knight player, which was a really exciting match that kept Iris at the edge of her seat.

“That’s incredible! I didn’t know you could do that!”
“Ohh they turned things around again. This match is far from over then.”

By then, Mira was also fully immersed in the match, attentively watching every play.

She had learned the basic rules during the first match she watched before, so now she was also able to follow what was happening. Only the specific card effects were still a bit of a mystery to her.

Thankfully, every time she asked, “What did they just do?” Iris would be able to give a perfect explanation.

“Oh, I think that settles it.”
“This is a really tight spot! But if that card is played then it might keep going…”

Eventually, the Paladin player was pushed into a corner, and Mira was sure that this was the end of the match, but Iris could still see a way out. There was a specific card in the Paladin deck that could turn things around once more.

The player took a card from the stack, then remained silent in thought for a while. The card had not been pulled.

And then cards began getting shuffled around rapidly, combining various card and unit effects, until the player finally reached the card that Iris had mentioned.

“What just happened! Somehow, the table was turned around once more!”
“That was so cool, too cool! I would’ve never thought of doing that to pull the card!”

It was not even the final match but the crowd could not be more excited by it all, and that extended to Mira and Iris.

Not long after that the match was over. The Paladin player’s last switchup had decided the match and emerged victorious, and the audience erupted with applause for both players.

“The first two matches were fun, but this one was the best.”
“I’ve never seen such a sequence of counterattack after counterattack.”

The two continued to talk during the break before the next match, still discussing the third match. Iris had plenty of new ideas, and Mira was starting to think of building her own deck as well.

They were eventually interrupted by a noise that resembled wind chimes.

“Hm? What’s that noise?”

Over at the balcony, there were no wind chimes hung up, not to mention that it sounded like the noise came from within the room, where there was no wind. But before long, the origin of that sound became clear.

“I’m going!”

As if someone had summoned her, Iris stood up and walked over to a corner of the room.

That sound had been the ringing of a communications device.

This one looked different from the one in Mira’s wagons, having all sorts of additional switches attached making it look more complicated, but Iris swiftly operated it, showing how used she was to it.

“Iris here!”

After flipping various switches, Iris finally pulled a lever and picked up.

‘Hey, I’m Alma. Tell me, is Mira somewhere nearby?’

Alma’s voice came out from the receiver. And from her words, it was safe to assume she had something to discuss with Mira.

Wondering if it had anything to do with their preparations from the previous day, Mira got up to answer, but Iris was faster.

“Yup! We’re watching the Astelia finals together!”

Her enthusiasm for watching TV with someone else was obvious from her excited voice.

‘Ah, I forgot. That was today.’

Meanwhile, Alma sounded shocked. She was also interested in the card game, so she was curious about the tournament as well. ‘How many matches did they already play? Did Friede play yet?’ She asked soon after, unable to stop her curiosity.

“The fourth match is just about to start. Friede will play the match after the next one.”
‘Gotcha, so it’ll take a bit longer. He’s something like Nirvana’s representative, so I really hope he wins!’
“I hope so too!”

That led to the two discussing the card game tournament further, as they not only enjoyed the game, but the player Friede was also their regional champion who had remained in the competition, and they wanted to see him succeed.

The two were deeply aware of Friede’s personal deck and playstyle, almost like they knew him in person.

Mira had also been able to glean from that conversation that Friede had always stood out during the qualifying matches as well, which Iris had also watched through the Magic TV.

‘Did you say they only played three matches so far? I would’ve expected them to be in the fifth match by now.’

Alma also took note of the time since the scheduled start of the tournament, once they were done talking about Friede.

Usually games of Legend of Astelia took half an hour, and it had been two hours since the event started.

“Ah, that’s because the third match was really crazy. I still can’t believe what happened.”
‘That’s a lot of praise from you. What happened in that game?’
“There were reversals after reversals! And I never thought that you could use that card in that position, it was a lot!”
‘Oh? What card did they use? What did they do?!’
“Heheheh, that’s a secret! I’ll use it the next time we play.”
‘Hey! That’s not fair!’

Just when it seemed like they were done, the two got fully engaged in their conversation again.

As usual, the best topic of conversation was a mutual interest or hobby, and the two would not run out of things to say.

“Helloooooo, did you forget about meee? I thought you wanted to talk.”

As the two discussed fun ideas for new decks, when new card packs would be sold, the possibility of Cecilia getting her own card soon, and so on, Mira raised her voice and interrupted them. After all, the call had been for her.

‘…Ah, I forgot!’

Alma had gotten so carried away talking with Iris that she was clearly startled when Mira reminded her. The conversation with Iris was postponed, and she went back to the main reason for the call.

‘Umm, *ahem*, so the thing we discussed yesterday went way faster than we thought. Apparently they’re in the waiting room right now, so you can go check on them and pick it up.’

Alma’s voice was unusually vague, hardly mentioning anything specific, since she was aware that the enemy could end up learning of their plans through Iris. That much was obvious to Mira, and she also picked up on what Alma meant.

(That’s the Kagura I know, she already sent it.)

The thing from yesterday and picking up clearly meant that Piisuke had arrived at the Fifty Bells Branch, and that the director Claus had brought the shikigami to the palace.

“I understand.”

When Mira replied, Alma casually said, ‘Thank you!’ like she had just asked someone to pick up a delivery for her. That was probably another way to not let Iris know how important this was.

‘And Iris, please tell me how the tournament went during dinner tonight, okay?’
“Okay!”

With that final exchange, Alma hung up. At the same time, the Magic TV became more audible.

The break was over and the fourth match was starting.

It was hard to tell the players’ faces apart from the distant viewpoint, but their height difference was striking.

It was a young boy against a grown man. If this was a fighting tournament, the match would be over in seconds, but in a card game, the two stood on equal ground. And somehow, it felt natural to want to root for the young boy to win.

But Mira had no time to stay and watch that match.