Is this the poker world?Ada thief!

Chapter 1845 What were you doing during the apocalypse? Are you free? Can you come and save us?
"So that's how it is. Our world has been targeted by such a dangerous entity? The situation has really taken a turn for the worse."

"It is an honor for us to be chosen by Mr. Hayato."

【Archmage-Ampur】 and 【Archmage-Juno】 were quite well-behaved, speaking calmly. Their composure made it almost impossible to tell that they were kneeling on the ground.

There was no other way. The [Magicians] had fought a major battle with [Endymion] a few years ago, and there were very few strong enough individuals left to stand up. The two of them were already considered to be in the first tier, so they had no choice but to contact the [Witchcraft] workshop in the magic trading city to form an alliance.

As a result, not only did their various methods fail to affect this otherworldly person named Kobayashi Hayato in the slightest, but the people from the [Witchcraft] workshop were also defeated by him head-on—although it was unclear why the "Crystallization Master" seemed completely unharmed after losing to him, as if he had been dueling with someone else entirely.

Regardless, it is a fact that the other side is the victor, and it is also a fact that the other side did not go all out to kill them, even though they won. Although the other side is not just "suspected" but really related to that "Aleister Crowley", the other side only told them to kneel down obediently. Perhaps, as the other side said at the beginning, he came to this world without any malice.

However, even if Hayato is still "lying" now, as the weaker party, they have no right to question him. The fact that he even gives them the right to flatter him and say a few words is already a sign of Hayato's great kindness.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the "loser's bracket"...
"Stare~~" Along with the sound of her mouth, Vera stared intently at Hayato with a rather unfriendly look, as if she wanted to remember his face. Heine, who was standing to the side, was quite helpless about this, but it was too difficult to get the socially awkward Vera to say something and comfort her, who was sulking like a child because she had been defeated by Hayato. In the end, she simply chose to ask Hayato for more information and change the subject to ease the atmosphere.

"So, Mr. Hayato, you came to our world specifically for that being called 'Yubel'. I'm truly sorry for misunderstanding you before, that you were an invader from outside the world who coveted the power of [magic]."

“No, Heine, you only aided the [Magicians] as an ally. They are the ones who are wrong, not you.” Hayato waved his hand magnanimously. “I am a person who distinguishes right from wrong and never holds grudges. Even if you offend me so much, I will not abandon this world and let Yubel do whatever he wants.”

"In fact, your preemptive attack gave me a reason to act. These visitors from another world, who came with good intentions, were attacked but instead repaid evil with kindness. They even took the initiative to unite all the forces of this world to better repel the invaders from another world and continue to protect it. No one could find anything wrong with my actions, right?"

As he spoke, Hayato looked at Vera with a provocative gaze—or rather, at Vera, who appeared beside Heine in the form of a remnant consciousness within the magical mark, visible only to a few of them, including Hayato, and who was completely invisible to others. He was looking forward to seeing what interesting expression she would make.

Unexpectedly, Vera nodded and said, "It's a very reasonable process. As long as it doesn't affect the [Witchcraft] workshop, I won't object even if you conquer the magic trading city."

“Because it’s to stop invaders from outside the world, right? It’s definitely necessary to unite everyone’s power.” Heine gave Hayato a trusting smile. “If it’s Mr. Hayato, then there’s no problem.”

"That's not right. The main storyline shouldn't be like this. You should argue that you can't lose faith in all of humanity because of one thing, that everyone's will is free, and that I can't impose my thoughts on everyone. Then you should argue with me on the journey, make up with me, experience various events to unlock side quests that reveal your past identities and backgrounds, and finally, sit by the campfire on a starry night to unlock a special CG."

Hayato raised his hand, "This isn't how it's supposed to be in the classic storyline, I can't accept it!"

"But, Mr. Hayato, do the invaders from outside the world you mentioned really exist?" Heine blinked and asked in a low voice. "There's nothing wrong with using special methods during special times. Besides, there are plenty of kings in this world who impose their will on their subordinates. If it's someone as gentle as Mr. Hayato, then there's even less of a problem."

Although it's another world, the story background of Alai's hometown—let's call it the "magic world" for now—is roughly similar to medieval Europe. In a world where "equality for all" has not yet been proposed, Hayato's behavior of "intending to conquer the world" is nothing special—after all, there are too many non-humans who do whatever they want because of their kingship. In comparison, Hayato is as kind as a saint.

Leaving aside distant examples, let's take Endymion, which has only appeared in the words of Vera and the [mages] so far and has not yet been directly encountered by Hayato. This magical city, named after the last of the "Three Great Sages"—the "Saintly Great Sage Endymion," who is both a great mage and a king—is an extremely prosperous magical kingdom.

The problem is that the prosperity of the Magic City Endymion is entirely based on the "Magic Stone" invented by Endymion himself—a classic design in Duel Monsters, the "Magic Counter"—and his way of governing the country is simply to distribute the "Magic Stone" to towns and villages within the country, without ever understanding the actual situation of the people.

They simply extended their will to the national territory, granting power without any regulation. This resulted in a situation where only the capital city of Endymion, where the king resided, was prosperous and peaceful. In the rest of the country, however, the "magic stones" were monopolized by various powers, and the people could not even get water from the river to irrigate their parched fields.

"Without something like the 'Philosopher's Stone,' the people might have had the chance to rebel and rise up against oppression, but Endymion went so far as to distribute Gatling guns to the oppressors so that they could oppress the people more efficiently?"

Hayato was also dumbfounded by the story behind these card spirits, which he had never heard of before. "I had imagined the worst possible world, but it turns out to be such a cesspool? You even say that Endymion is one of the safest places in the world with a high level of public order and a high happiness index for its people?"

"Although I don't know what public security management level and happiness index are, if I understand correctly, yes, Endymion has managed his country quite well."

Hayato shook his head when he heard Vera's words: "I'm starting to feel that it would be better to let Yubel come into this world and cause some trouble than to let you continue to struggle in this cesspool."

“Well, I think we shouldn’t do that. It’s not like we’re so radical as to blow up the cesspool,” Alai complained, and sighed. “The three of us risked our lives to stop Zoroah, and in the end, we still made this world so terrible. I even sacrificed my body for this world.”

While others may not know the past of the "Three Weis" (a group of three famous figures), Wei'er knows it all. As if responding to Alai's previous sarcastic remarks, she immediately retorted, "Don't make it sound so nice. You know exactly how you lost your body."

Arai, however, shamelessly ignored him, and Hayato sighed dramatically, "Alas, Arai, it wasn't anyone who ruined you, it was this chaotic world that ruined you!"

"Knowing how powerful your world is, I've actually lost interest in ruling it. Ultimately, my only goal is Yubel, and my only requirement of you is that you don't interfere with me." Hayato, who never intended to stay in the "magic" world, was joking when he mentioned "conquering the world." After explaining Yubel's existence and her constant usurpation of power from other worlds to complete the new world she desired, Hayato got to the point, "So, next, let's talk about how to deal with that Yubel guy."

"Mr. Hayato, you have already explained the other party's objectives and the harm it will cause to the world."

Heine obediently raised his hand, asking like a child eagerly answering a teacher's question in class, "For example, the world's power will be taken away, the power of the strong will weaken, and we who live here will be forcibly transferred to another world." "Then what means does the other side rely on to achieve this, or what special abilities does the other side possess?"

Hayato started counting on his fingers: "Yubel can manipulate the darkness in people's hearts, possess others, regenerate itself, modify other people's bodies by giving them power, and even fuse with spirits. It can also open up large-scale spatial transfer."

"And now she has also acquired a body she really likes to move around in, and is using a card that has the power to connect to the world. In terms of combat power, she is probably equivalent to 700,000 Vera or 80,000 Alai."

"Wait a minute!" Upon hearing Hayato's analogy, Vera raised her hand and said, "Isn't that number a bit exaggerated? I'm not that weak! Even if I stretched out my neck and let that Yubel chop me down for days and nights, I could still manage to chop me down for seven hundred thousand!"

Alai, however, didn't mind at all: "I have no objection, because I'm at least better than you, Vera."

“A normal ‘Sandrion’ is certainly a useful fighting force, but let me tell you, Vera, you get sleepy as soon as you use magic, are you really a fighting force?” Hayato retorted, criticizing Vera, this amazing person who completely abandoned her fighting force in order to be young and beautiful. “You might as well say that if you replaced Alai with bread, 80,000 loaves of bread would be enough for Yubel to eat for half a month.”

"However, Yubel's problem now is not her ability to fight head-on. No matter how much she cheats, she is not qualified to challenge [Odin] and [Timaeus]. Her methods of usurping the power of the world have never relied on direct combat. In fact, most of the beings that have been transferred by her have undergone spatial transfer without her knowledge."

Alai said with some distress, "I'm quite good at techniques like spirit summoning and otherworldly summoning, but how to invade a world is a blind spot for me. Even a genius like me can't deduce the process from the result."

Upon seeing that Alai actually knew something, Vera instantly reverted to her arrogant, bratty self. This "old hag" stood with her hands on her hips in front of Hayato and Alai, suddenly shouting, "What? In the end, you still have to rely on the great Vera, huh? Hmph, listen up, you bunch of nobodies! I, Vera, happen to know what the other party might have relied on to achieve this, so quickly bow down and worship the greatness of Vera!"

"Huh?" Alai raised an eyebrow, his indignation rising instead. "I seem to remember learning teleportation magic much earlier than you, and I learned it after just a few glances, while you pestered me to teach you for ages before you finally learned it. How dare you say you're better than me in this area?"

"Hmph, it has nothing to do with that. It's because you know too much that you've fallen into a misconception, thinking that the other party must have used spatial magic or ability to cut and transfer the world, right? But the truth is quite the opposite."

Vera smugly placed her hand on Heine's body, releasing her magic from the mark on Heine's clothes and forcibly taking over one of Heine's arms: "Lend me one hand to do some demonstrations, Heine—because of those two bastards who are not gentlemen at all, I don't have enough magic left in this mark to create another body."

As Vera borrowed Heine's arm and, incidentally, also unscrupulously borrowed a bit of Heine's magic with her little hands, she manipulated magic to create an illustration in the air, depicting four creatures of different shapes.

Looking at Vera's abstract painting, Alai's lips twitched: "So many years have passed, and your painting skills are still so bad."

“Urusai! Understanding it is enough!” Pointing to the red dragon in the picture, Vera said, “Or do you not even recognize this guy?”

Alai shrugged: "How could that be? After all, this guy is the 'Bahram' who bewitched Zoroya and merged with him."

Having recognized one of them, Alai quickly figured out what the other abstract paintings corresponded to: "The one that looks like glass is Ningaruru, the one with the pointed head is Aiwas, and the only one that looks somewhat human is Artemis? Aren't they all beings from another world?"

“That’s right, and you should be aware of what I’m talking about, Alai, about the changes that occurred in the other world where Ningaluru and the others live.” Vera’s tone was somewhat heavy. “Back then, in order to stop Bahram, Ningaluru and the others found us, offered their help, and gave us power, becoming our respective guardians.”

"But after defeating Zoroa and Bahram, it did not come to an end. The power of the other world eventually connected with this world. Although the magic became less aggressive, it still invaded the entire world and transformed everything. Even Ningaluru and the others, who were originally limited by the rules and could not interfere with the other world, came to this world in their original forms and interacted with us."

“After teaching you all of her alchemy, Ningalulu lost her existence. After Aiwass brought me enlightenment, she lost herself and became a wand.” Looking at the wand in his hand, Alai rarely showed a nostalgic expression, but then his face became playful. “That Endymion guy is the most outrageous. He actually married Artemis and had a son.”

"But why bring up these old stories all of a sudden?"

“That’s why I said knowing too much makes you dull. Back in the beginning, you were the one with the strongest ability to observe magic among us.” Vera sighed. “Although the manifestations are completely opposite, isn’t the process of Ningaluru and the others’ world merging into our world just the reversal of 'Yubel' seizing the power of other worlds?”

"I made many efforts to prevent Ning Aruru's disappearance, but unfortunately I failed in the end. I could only create a new body for her. But now, perhaps it can be of use in saving the world."

As she spoke, Vera manipulated Heine's hand to pull out a map and cast a small spell.

The sharp-eyed Alai recognized the familiar magical traces: "Is this spell a variant of the map I made before?"

"Similarly, but your map detects the intensity of magic, while my map detects the special magic in specific locations—the kind of special magic that flows in the invisible veins underground, like the blood of the world."

Pointing to three points on the map, Vera said, "【Magic Academy - Lamaison】, 【Magic City - Endymion】, and the magic trading city 'Pantamelon' - to be precise, the underground of the 【Witchcraft】workshop, which is the gathering point of special magic."

"When the magic from the other world flowed into this world, these three points were the easiest to accumulate magic. So, if I were to reverse the process, the one called 'Yubel' who wanted to invade this world and seize the world itself might have started from these three 'singularities'!"

The title was chosen randomly.
Because readership has been low lately, I'm thinking of reverting to updating at 23:59.