What was Free City best known for? Not Annan himself, nor his disputes with the Mad Dog Duke and the Rikaner Kingdom. Not even Magic Films or Magic Newspapers.
It was Playing Cards.
Annan had thrown together Playing Cards to film The Mage Tower's Fall. They had traveled from Breeze City to Star-Moon Bay, then to Free City, without attracting much attention.
A deck cost just ten Copper Coins. Even selling a thousand decks brought in only one Gold Coin, and he would have to sell three thousand to earn one Gold Coin in profit. Besides, anyone could make them. So Annan merely refined the cards, replacing the kings, queens, and nobles of Spades, Hearts, Clubs, and Diamonds with figures from the Allen Continent, then left them alone.
But precisely because Playing Cards were cheap, they spread outward from the taverns. Nobles and refugees alike found ways to play.
Even children sprawled on the ground, slapping cards back and forth.
So Rikaner Glory was not entirely wrong to accuse Free City of cultural invasion.
A husband tucked a Magic Newspaper under his arm and hurried to the tavern under an umbrella to play cards with friends. His wife enjoyed Lemon Soda with her friends at a cafe before heading to Diagon Alley to buy a Waist Cincher. Their child, clamoring to see a Magic Film, stayed home while a maid in Faster clothes washed him with Soap.
This was dangerous.
Had this happened in the Tartun Empire or any other country, influence on this scale would certainly have alarmed the great families. But Annan and his Free City were too young and too charming... Who would worry about the ambitions of a city built less than a year ago?
Besides, Annan's main market was the Tartun Empire. As for whether