Chapter 3
"The duel examination for the final examinee will now begin. As before, I, Professor Crowler, Chief of Practical Examinations at Duel Academy, will serve as the opponent!"
Crowler's declaration rang out across the arena. Both he and Rowan spoke at the same time.
"Duel!"
The Duel Disks on their wrists flared red and snapped open.
The field display lit up with both players' life points: 4000 each.
"I'll let you have the first turn, Examinee 111." Crowler drew his five opening cards and gestured magnanimously toward Rowan.
In his mind, he was already gloating. Consider it compensation, he told himself, for being forced to use those two cards he never wanted to waste on a mere student.
"Hm. Actually..." Rowan looked down at the five cards he had just drawn, then looked back up at Crowler with an expression of genuine pity.
"Why don't you go first, Professor?"
He was looking at Crowler the way someone might look at a man who had just stepped in something unfortunate.
Because Rowan had drawn what could only be described as a perfect opening hand straight out of the system's beginner gift pack.
An absolute dream start.
"You insufferable failure, what is that look?!"
Across the field, Crowler nearly bit through his own collar.
He felt, with every fiber of his being, that he had just been insulted.
"What?!"
A wave of disbelief swept through the arena. The examinees and Duel Academy students in the surrounding seats erupted in noise.
This examinee had just handed the first turn to Professor Crowler?
This was Crowler.
Yes, he had just been defeated by Examinee 110, that Jaden Yuki, in what most people were quietly writing off as a spectacular stroke of luck.
But that did not make Crowler weak. Not even close.
"He's got some nerve..." Syrus muttered from the examinees' seating area, genuinely taken aback.
"Or maybe he actually has a plan." Bastion Misawa studied Rowan's figure on the field, then turned to Jaden, who had just settled back into the seat beside him.
"Examinee 110. You came with him, didn't you? Do you know what kind of deck he's running?"
"Ahaha, well, the thing is..." Jaden scratched the back of his head.
"Rowan and I came together, yeah, but we've known each other for less than half an hour."
Bastion and Syrus stared at him in silence.
Everyone else who had been leaning in to listen quietly turned back to the field.
"Since you're so eager to lose quickly, I'll grant that wish of yours, non!"
Crowler forced the words out through clenched teeth, acutely aware of every pair of eyes watching him.
He reached toward the deck on his Duel Disk.
"My turn. Draw!"
A card ejected automatically from the top of the deck and landed squarely in his waiting hand.
"It seems your luck is quite poor after all, Examinee 111. You've given me exactly the card I wanted."
Crowler's face split into a slow, satisfied smile. He turned the card around and held it up for Rowan to see.
The card read: Polymerization.
Normal Spell. Effect: Send the required Fusion Material Monsters from your hand or field to the Graveyard, then Special Summon one Fusion Monster.
"A Spell Card? Polymerization?" Several Duel Academy students in the stands stirred with surprise.
"But what could Professor Crowler possibly fuse in an Ancient Gear deck?"
Crowler's Ancient Gear deck was extraordinarily rare by this world's standards.
Its worth could reasonably be measured in the tens of millions.
Most people had never seen it up close, let alone studied its individual cards.
The only thing widely known about the legendary deck was its ace monster: the Ancient Gear Golem, 3000 attack points.
Rowan, having watched the anime, knew considerably more than that.
The Ancient Gear archetype had several Fusion Monsters.
High attack, powerful effects. Some of them were capable of ending a duel in a single turn.
He glanced at his own five cards and felt nothing resembling concern.
He settled in and watched Crowler's grand performance with quiet amusement.
Go ahead. Put on the whole show.
Rowan had always believed in a simple truth: the bigger the display going in, the worse it stings on the way out.