Mr. Elford spoke quite seriously, while Shade drew the Great City Player · Year 1853 Tobesk Champion, Stars 12, and placed it on the snow surface for him to see:
"I was last year's Great City Player Champion. My deck has quite a few special cards."
Mr. Elford clapped in surprise and laughed:
"The Year 1853 champion—right, 1853 is once again the year Great City Player is held. I'd actually forgotten that while I was alive, there was no chance at all for me to play cards with the Great City Player Champion. Who would have thought I'd have such an opportunity after death? It's fine, please use all your special cards. That is the proper respect for Rhodes Cards and the dignity of a card player. Life truly is strange. Dying here has instead brought me such a marvelous encounter."
Shade smiled as well:
"I never expected to meet an opponent with special cards this afternoon either."
He took out the dice and tossed them onto the snow surface, stopping Little Mia as she tried to grab them:
"What rules shall we use?"
"Something simple. The first to win twice wins."
Mr. Elford proposed the simplest rules, representing the purest form of Rhodes Cards.
"No problem."
There was no referee for this Card Game, and naturally no need to inspect each other's decks. Sitting opposite one another in the snow, the two men placed their cards to their right, then each drew their first face-down card.
"Come to think of it, I'm curious. This is so far from the city, Mr. Elford. Did you come all this way because there's something noteworthy nearby?"
Shade asked, then drew his second card alongside Mr. Elford. Shade's second card was the newly acquired Moon 12, Phantom Opera House: Silent Audience. If the