(Y/n) was born and raised in the dark world. Though she never really met her parents and was raised by basically everyone in the card castle to become a royal guardian.
Then the king of spades imprisoned the other three kings and made another dark...
Right after exiting the elevator, we were immediately attacked by two Rudinn Ranger's. Kris told Susie to compliment the enemy, which made her raise a brow at him. She was at a loss for what to say. "... uhhh, are you serious? What good can I say about someone trying to kill us?" Seeing her having trouble, Ralsei tried to guide her. "Aww, Susie... if you're stuck, why not try... saying something you wished someone would say to you?"
Susie thought for a moment then grinned at the Rudinn Rangers and simply said "You are unbanned from free ham sandwich day." I couldn't help but give a short laugh. The Rangers seemed happy to hear that but attacked us anyway, throwing their daggers at us but we easily dodged those.
In the next round, I tried to explain to the Rangers why fighting is bad and that we were only trying to help but they seemed to just get tired, yawning in a very obvious manner. Susie snorted. "HA! Seems like I'm not the only one who finds those monologs boring!" I growled. "Oh shut it! Why don't you try sparing for a change!?" I pouted, crossing my arms. "Hehe, easy! Watch this!" With a quick motion, she spared one of the Rangers, looking so proud of herself afterwards. "Enough! You can't convince me!" The Ranger left yelled, throwing more and more daggers in our direction. A round of dodging later, Kris continued. "Well, in that case... Ralsei, would you mind?" He asked, gesturing to the Ranger, who looked ready to take a nap but he fraught against it. "Oh, not at all!" Ralsei said and did his magic, humming a short tune, the Ranger falling over in a deep slumber almost immediately.
"Good job, Susie!" Ralsei cheered. "Yeah, not bad for a first time." I added with an impressed smile. Susie grinned proudly. "I know right. Totally a pro at this now!" She bragged making me roll my eyes playfully.
We were hoping to use the elevator to the top floor, where the king should be waiting for us but sadly, it was out of commission. A sign next to it said that it was stuck at the top until someone rides it down. "Well, I guess that means we're taking the stairs..." Susie growld immediately. "Ugh, seriously?! Why can't it be easy for once, damn it!?" She complained but knowing that there was no other way, we started walking.
After a while we came across two Rudinns just hanging out in the hallways. One of them noticed us and after a double take, ran up to us. "Hey, it's you! You're the peaceful Lightner!" He exclaimed to Kris, who awkwardly waved as a greeting before the Rudinn turned to me. "And you are that brave young guard, who isn't afraid of the king! Woah, you even tamed the beats that was tormenting us...!" I blushed. I haven't been praised by other guards since I was a kid.
Susie, having heard what the Rudinn had said, stepped forwards, dumpfounded. "... beast? What beast?"
Rudinn's eyes sparkled. "Ohhh!!! You even taught the beast to talk!? That's amazing here! Have a choco diamond!" He explained impressed, handing me one of the chocolate treats. I couldn't hold the laugh that escaped me. "Hehe, thanks. But Susie, won't cause trouble anymore. She's in our team now, so don't call her a beast, okay? She's cool." I explained and the Rudinn nodded, seeming even more impressed with what I had said. I think Susie was also slightly grateful for what I had said, but I doubt that she's going to admit that.
~small timeskip~
Once we went up the first set of stairs, we were met by mashines spiraling chain of diamonds around, similar to the once we had seen outside the castle before. The way forward was blocked with spikes so we figured that there had to be as switch somewhere on the right.
We walked inside a random room, thinking that we could find something interesting or useful, instead we got the opposite of both. It was a singular room with nothing in it but a small patch of red gras. As soon as we entered, spikes came up by the door behind us, trapping us inside. "H-Hey! What gives!" Susie shouted and a voice started talking. A voice all too familiar to me. "So the worms have decided to crawl out and play..." I couldn't help but face-palm. "Who's there?!" Ralsei asked nervously. Everyone in this room except for me seemed to be tense, since they didn't know who we were dealing with yet. "Geh ha ha ha ha! Thoust FOOLS!" Within a flashing light, the Duke of puzzles came into view. I crossed my arms, staring at him unamused. He looks just like I last saw him 9 years ago. His white hair, which had grown a bit longer since I last saw him, parted to his left, and a face with a slightly melted appearance and a large smile on his face. He's wearing the same old royal blue suit with epaulets that I knew from back then.
Kris, Ralsei and Susie however, were dumbfounded. "I am Rouxls Kaard, thou're greatest adversary! Thou may have clawedst past all thouse otherest conundrums... But THOUSE were created by UTTER WEAKLINGS! Now prepare thouself. For the STRONGEST puzzle of THOUST LIFE!" Rouxle snapped his fingers and the puzzle appeared, consisting of only a switch and a box RIGHT next to it. "Toil, worms!" He exclaimed, so sure of himself that he had won. Kris glanced at me, silently asking me if he was serious and I shrugged. Susie and Ralsei were completely lost.
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Still with a confused expression, Kris put one foot on the box and easily kicked it onto the switch. Of course, the puzzle was immediately solves, the spikes by the door disappearing. Rouxls Kaard stared at us in disbelief I just blankly looked at him, gestures towards the solved puzzle and said. "The worms have toiled." I heard Kris snickered and Rouxls seemed embarrassed both at my comment and the fact that we were able to solve this 'Oh so hard puzzle' so easily. "God.... damn it..." And he disappeared without another words.
There was a moment of silence before Susie blurted out. "What the f*ck was that!!?" I chuckled. "Language, Susie." Ralsei reminded her. "Yeah, but I'm with Susie. Might want to explain, doll?" Kris asked me and I sighed a laugh. "That was Rouxls Kaard. The 'Duke of puzzles' I told you about earlier." I said, putting quotation marks while saying the title. "Wow, you weren't kidding when you said he was annoying." Susie said. "Yeah, he's also very persistent, so prepare yourself to encounter him again."
We began walking. "Are all his puzzles like that?" Ralsei asked me, referring to the the easy level of difficulty. "Sadly, yes... When I was a kid, he would always pull me aside, wanting me to test his newest puzzle, thinking they would stump me. But as you can imagine, I solves each one within seconds and he would always say: 'Thou're very cleverest, little one! Butest next time, thou will be lostest within my clevernessest!' I always thought he was weird, but he was always nice to me so I didn't care much." I told them, giving my best Rouxls Kaard impression, making all of them either laugh, chuckle or snicker.
