Cards Grow in Fields and Seas, That's Just Common Sense
The awkward atmosphere vanished completely, washed away by the child's innocent laughter. Once Taeyang came out to the living room, his mother, Yumi, sat down with us and we all ate together. In that warm setting, the kid asked about my shabby clothes and why I was staying at the house, and I gave the same answers as before.
"Whoa~. Mister, you've really been through a lot! Stealing other people's precious cards… There are just way too many unforgivable people in this world!!"
"My friend Jinu also had his card stolen recently. That's why we all need to work together!"
"But we can't just sit back and do nothing, can we!?"
Even though we were in the middle of eating, his voice was loud. Taeyang and the girl residing in his card kept chattering away about things only they understood. From the flow of the conversation, it seemed there were quite a few victims like me. This was exactly the kind of "card theft" episode you'd always find in these kinds of manga. And more than anything, the part where the heroine desperately tries to stop the passionate protagonist from going on a rampage felt all too familiar.
"Are you two talking about the Rare Card Hunters?"
"That's right! You know about them too, mister! Those guys only pick fights with opponents weaker than them, then steal everyone's precious cards! Recently some jerk challenged me to a battle over my Little Princess, so I beat him up instead!"
So that's what this was about. 'The protagonist is an elementary schooler… This must be that series, right? If this is a children's anime, then timeline-wise we're in the Original Series arc.'
It felt like the main early-story episode was unfolding. Later, when he becomes a middle schooler, that would be Season 2, and around high school would be Season 3. Then when aliens or people from the future invade Earth using cards and the scale gets bigger, it'd turn into a movie. Even though I felt a bit pathetic for deciding this entire world was an anime, thinking about it this way made everything fit perfectly, so my thoughts naturally deepened.
"Mister, does your heart hurt because your cards got stolen too?"
I hadn't thought about it that seriously. If I had to describe it, it was more like a pitiful delusion. Still, like any proper protagonist, Taeyang tried to comfort an adult without caring about the age difference.
"Don't worry! Me and my Little Princess will take those guys down! Oh, that's right! What kind of deck did you used to use, mister?"
"Deck?"
"Yeah. So I can help you find it later when you get your cards back!"
The lost ID and amnesia were all lies. I did have a deck, but it wasn't one that existed in this world. So I thought of the TCG deck I used back in my original world and answered.
"For friendly matches, I used a Torture Deck. Privately, I collected beautiful girl cards."
A single red card floated above the table. A beautiful woman with red hair was projected like a hologram, looking this way. No matter how you looked at it, she seemed like a beautiful-girl version of a Red Dragon, with thick horns and wings covered in membranes. Her pupils were bright yellow, and she wore bright red bikini armor. Despite the word "little" in her name, her college-student-like appearance combined with that outfit seemed like the type to plant strange fetishes in young viewers.
"Eww. Mister, you collect stuff like that? I hate both of those~."
"I can understand why your friends hate the Torture Deck. But why don't you like beautiful girl cards? Your partner card is a beauty too."
"Princess is my ace card, so that's fine! But all the beautiful girl cards other people brag about are way too over-the-top!"
Considering Taeyang's age, it was actually a natural reaction. Very boyish, before hitting puberty.
"Other people?"
"The kids in my class brag about them sometimes. Cards with huge boobs this big, or ones that are practically naked. They show that embarrassing stuff off in the classroom and everything. You don't know how much the girls in class hate it!!"
'For a sixth-grader, this is actually a healthy reaction rather than precocious kids being ahead of their age.'
I was into married women and the missy type. Even though I was interested in cards with massive assets, I hid my expression.
"My mom has a hard time with that too. Sometimes she has to turn away people who bring weird mats to the store. I don't get why they'd bring naked big-sister mats to a public place~!"
In a world where beautiful girl cards could materialize and gain personalities, there were probably lots of people with twisted fetishes, so maybe ethics were looser here. I changed the subject to win over Taeyang, who didn't understand that reality.
"What I said was just for collection purposes. In actual battles, I used a cool robot deck, so I'm sure you'd like that too."
"Aha, robots! I'd love to see that! But you had that precious deck stolen, right? That makes me so mad~!"
"That's right, mister. When you find your deck later, let's have a Beyond Battle—"
At that moment, Yumi let out a small cough.
"Taeyang."
"Ah. Sorry."
It was a warning not to get too loud during the meal. He must have been well-raised because he immediately lowered his voice.
"Mister Baek, please don't throw topics like that at Taeyang. Once he starts talking about cards, he loses all sense of time and place."
"He's at that age. I understand completely."
I knew how emotionally beneficial it was for a child to have an adult nearby who shared the same hobby. My own father had been like that. So I understood Taeyang's excitement, gave him a friendly smile, and quietly winked at him.
"!"
"I just had a great idea."
Then Taeyang, who had barely managed to stay quiet, made a serious request this time.
"Mom. Mister Baek doesn't have anywhere to go, right?"
"That's right. He said he'd go to a shelter, but you know how dangerous it is out there these days…."
"Then let him stay with us for a while. We have an empty room anyway~."
"…Really? I was worried you might not like it."
"I'm fine with it. Mister Baek seems like a good person! There's no way a bad person could love Beyond Battles!!"
There it was. That inexplicable trust unique to young protagonists. It was practically a talent, the way he could say something like that without knowing if someone was good or bad. 'Ugh, it's so cringey. I'm way too old to be receiving such pure goodwill.'
I forced a smile to accept the boy's innocent kindness. Yumi seemed to have made up her mind as well and offered again.
"Since Taeyang feels that way too, why don't you stay at our shop? As you just heard, we have an empty room, and we're actually short-handed at the store right now."
'I wondered when I saw the outside. So robots are commercialized here.'
To be honest, I had never planned to refuse from the beginning. A part of me had thought it would be comfortable to stay here. But I didn't want to seem too eager, so I pretended to think it over for a moment before giving a small nod.
"Then… I'll take you up on your kind offer and impose on you for a while."
"Great. I'll be counting on you too~."
Yumi smiled. If I wasn't imagining it, her slightly flushed expression carried just a hint of feminine charm.
After that, Taeyang left for school. Yumi showed me to the room. It was a man's room overflowing with archaeology books.
"This was my husband's room. Feel free to use everything except the books and bookshelves however you like, Mister Baek."
"This might be a rude question, but where is your husband?"
"He went missing not long after Taeyang was born. He was an archaeologist researching the history and artifacts of Beyond Battles."
She briefly explained that she had kept the books here just in case, preserving them all this time. It didn't seem like a pleasant story, so she only mentioned the necessary parts.
"I see. It must have been hard raising him all by yourself."
"Hehe. Not at all. As you can see, Taeyang is very sociable, so every day is fun. The store provides enough for the two of us to live comfortably, so please don't worry too much."
I had expected this kind of answer once she showed me her husband's room. I quietly let the subject pass without digging into her painful past. More importantly, the fact that the protagonist's father was missing made the future all too predictable.
'An archaeologist in the protagonist's father position. In these cases, there's a high chance he'll show up brainwashed as the son's enemy….'
Especially archaeologists in subculture often get corrupted by mysterious powers or the occult. That leads to them suddenly appearing as the final boss. Or maybe they're deliberately hiding and scheming somewhere. Either way, I never thought for a second that he was dead.
"I know it's rude to put a man in another man's room. But the only other room we have is the storage space."
"No, that's not what I was thinking about. I was just lost in thought after hearing what happened."
"It's someone else's business. You really don't need to concern yourself with it."
"I'm going to be staying here and working for you. If there's anything weighing on your mind, please tell me. Listening to other people's stories is a small hobby of mine."
"Thank you just for saying that."
Yumi seemed genuinely happy about my straightforward words, which only made her seem even more gullible. She was a truly easy-to-fool married woman. Still in her prime, with a missing husband and a son to raise alone—she was exactly the type of woman who triggered all my MILF-loving senses.
'No matter how I look at it, the mom character is always more popular than the heroine.'
If you searched for 'Han Yumi' with the R-18 tag, you'd get flooded with lewd images. Without realizing it, I licked my lips. It looked like my bad habits were about to come out again. Worried I might slip up, I calmed my excitement. She noticed that my suit was torn again and brought me new clothes while showing me around the store. By this point, she had changed into an apron and more practical work clothes.
"I'll get the store ready. First, could you open the boxes on that shelf over there and move them to the display stand? And then—"
'She's really efficient.'
The dirty thoughts I'd been having while looking at Yumi faded for a moment. I threw myself into the labor that was about to begin, arranging card packs I'd never seen before, wiping down tables, and helping with preparations. Seeing her prepare drinks in the back, it didn't seem all that different from the TCG shops in my original world.
"By the way, where do all these cards come from?"
"What kind of cards do you mean?"
"All the packs here. Earlier you mentioned that everyone has a Heart Deck, so I was wondering why it seemed strange that people make and sell cards."
Taeyang hadn't found it strange earlier when I said I used a different deck and collected cards. That meant it was normal for other people to have decks besides their Heart Decks.
The answer that came back to my question was absurd.
"You forgot about that part too. Those are all cultivated cards."
'──That's weird. Can the words "card" and "cultivated" even go together?'
Yumi gave her usual innocent smile.
"For example, let's say you wanted an earth-attribute card, Mister Baek. Then you'd either dig up cards grown in high-quality soil, or open card packs distributed from farms that specialize in them."
"So… you're saying cards grow like sweet potatoes?"
"Yes."
"Then what about water-attribute cards?"
"Professional fishermen catch them or they are raised in aquaculture farms. Just yesterday, the news said that Norway succeeded in cultivating a rare card that was previously impossible to raise by human hands. We might start carrying them in our store soon too~♪"
…….
…….
I should just stop thinking.
I was a wage slave. A happy slave working for a beautiful boss with big breasts and a plump ass. I firmly declared that the best thing to do while working was to turn off your brain, and broke out in a splendid sweat.