Nobody can stop me from drawing cards in Gotham!

Chapter 28 A Very Useful Snake

"I won't tell anyone what I just saw."

After the criminal, who was so terrified by Jaeger's sudden disarming that he scrambled out of the clinic door after Jaeger told him to get lost, left, Leslie silently put the gun he had just pulled from under the table back and said this to Jaeger.

"What?" Jaeger had just been examining the gun that had been confiscated from the criminal and hadn't heard what Leslie said, so he looked up in confusion.

Leslie, however, mistakenly thought that the other person did not quite trust what he had just said, so he explained, "Believe me, young man... when it comes to keeping secrets, I'm afraid no one in Gotham is better than me."

After all, if Bruce Wayne can be Batman, then it's not particularly surprising that the young man living in the eerie apartment next door knows some magic.

Jaeger finally heard him clearly this time, and he was immediately somewhat surprised: "Oh, it's not really necessary to keep it a secret... although it's not really necessary to publicize it either."

"What I mean is, you don't need to feel overwhelmed by what you just saw."

"After all, you just waived my medical fees," Jaeger said seriously. "So it's what I should do, ma'am. How about it, exchanging a medical bill for my help once, isn't that a good deal?"

Leslie, who had been a little nervous, was amused by Jaeger's words and her expression relaxed: "...You rascal."

"But anyway, thank you for your help, young man."

Upon hearing this, Jaeger waved his hand cheerfully: "Don't worry about it, and just call me Jaeger... Alright, I have to go now. Have a nice day, Dr. Leslie!"

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Back in his apartment, Jaeger first used a restoration spell, watching as the shattered glass he had blown up automatically returned to its original state before the blast occurred, before collapsing onto the sofa in a daze.

After all, he had just given Dr. Leslie next door a hard time because of his research on magic, so he wasn't in the mood to continue his research.

But if I don't do any research, I won't know what to do for a while...

There's been no movement from Batman either. I wonder if he's busy cleaning up the mess left by the fakes and doing night patrols, so he hasn't had time to check the information Jaeger asked him to investigate.

The main cards haven't been refreshed yet, so there's no need to worry about surviving for now.

Suddenly finding himself with nothing to do, Jaeger thought for a moment, then finally summoned the Void Card Table and found the thing he had been unable to bring himself to use for the past few days—

That's the [Random Equipment Token] that was given away before.

After all, given Jaeger-Schödinger's luck, he would be lucky to even pull out toilet paper, let alone the artifact... which is why Jaeger kept agonizing over whether or not to pull it out.

But there was nothing else to do right now, and he had just been blown out of his apartment by accident, and then he ran into a drug-addicted criminal committing a burglary at the clinic. He was unlucky no matter how you looked at it.

And if you're this unlucky, according to the law of conservation of luck, it's about time your luck turned around... right?

With that thought in mind, Jaeger took a deep breath and touched the card.

[Do you want to use "Random Equipment Card"?]

【whether】

Jaeger pressed "Yes".

The random equipment card immediately changed to a string of jumping ellipses, indicating that it was randomly drawing items.

Finally, under Jaeger's slightly tense gaze, the card's image slowly shifted before settling into a fixed form—

On the golden surface of the card, a coiled snake was depicted in a style reminiscent of certain tribal totems.

[Equipment - A really useful snake]

[Level: None (This equipment card cannot be upgraded by any means)]

[Description: Summon the snake that best suits your needs; it's very useful.]

[Note: You might ask what use a snake could have, but since you're already here, why not ask this magical snake? — Of course, please don't use it for anything strange.]

Great, at least I didn't actually get any toilet paper.

Jaeger, who had been feeling extremely pressured by his own expectations, breathed a sigh of relief and began to carefully read the description and notes of the equipment card. He then couldn't help but reveal a strange expression.

What does "a really useful snake" mean... and what strange things can you do with a snake?

Should we squeeze out the venom from the snake's fangs and sell it for money? But what if it's a non-venomous snake?

Thinking about it wasn't going to work, so Jaeger simply used the equipment card to see just how useful this supposedly really useful snake actually was.

The card rotated, indicating that it was used successfully.

But Jaeger didn't see anything that could be called a snake in front of him, and looked around blankly... Where is my snake?

Fortunately, Jaeger didn't have to search for long before a strange, icy sensation suddenly spread from his wrist.

Jaeger jolted awake and instinctively used the levitation spell.

The coldness on his hand vanished instantly, and a snake, suspended upside down by the levitation spell, was suddenly brought into mid-air in front of Jaeger, staring at him with a pair of tiny eyes that had absolutely nothing to do with ferocity.

Jaeger looked at the snake.

The snake looked at Yeg.

The man and the snake stared at each other blankly.

Jaeger recalled the description of the equipment card as "the snake most suitable for you," and then looked at the cow snake in front of him with a pair of harmless black beady eyes, about the length of which could wrap around his neck once, and with very strange white scales with black spots, and fell silent.

Where would this be suitable?

Jaeger reached out and pinched the cheeks of the snake, which seemed strangely dazed. The snake didn't react and didn't even flick its tongue, showing no signs of aggression.

As soon as Jaeger withdrew the levitation spell, the fallen snake automatically coiled around his arm, found a suitable spot to hold itself, and then pretended to be dead and motionless, like an ornament.

Jaeger: "..."

Now, he doesn't care where it's suitable; he's more interested in where it's useful.

Would it be useful to have an extra snake-shaped hand pendant that's completely harmless?

After a moment's hesitation, Jaeger suddenly seemed to remember something and reached out to poke the snake's head: "Um, can you understand what I'm saying?"

Finally, something that moved and pleased Jaeger happened—the snake slowly raised its head, turned its eyes toward Jaeger, and then nodded.

Since you can understand it, that makes things easier.

So Jaeger turned and asked, "What abilities do you have? What can you do?"

After all, the equipment description said that you could ask what the snake was for, so Jaeger asked without any qualms.

Upon hearing Yeager's words, the snake surprisingly showed a thoughtful expression, and then hissed.

It raised its tail and pointed to the side of Jaeger.

Jaeger looked in the direction the snake's tail was pointing and saw a mug on the table.

This wasn't something Jaeger bought; it was already there when he moved into the apartment.

Jaeger didn't know what use a cup would be to a snake, but seeing that the snake wanted it, he took it and placed it in front of it: "You mean this cup?"

The snake nodded.

What happened next made Jaeger's eyes widen in surprise.

The snake slowly opened its mouth wide, and then, in a way that Jaeger could not comprehend at all, swallowed the mug that looked much larger than its mouth...

Jaeger: ?

What's even stranger is that after the snake swallowed the cup, its slender body didn't change at all, and there was no indication that it had just swallowed a cup that was several times larger than its head.

Fortunately, a text box appeared on the snake's body at that moment, explaining the strange scene that Jaeger had just witnessed:

[Sold: 1 regular mug]

[Remaining storage space: 9]

Jaeger: ...?!