Chapter 10
"This guy!"
Chazz's temper snapped.
Being dismissed so casually was more than he could take.
All he wanted now was to watch this lucky nobody crumble in defeat, to see that look on his face, the disbelief, the regret, the same expression every duelist wore when Chazz Princeton was done with them.
"In the name of the Chazz, I accept your challenge!"
Rowan had just allowed himself a small smile, already mentally preparing to deliver some "warmth" to Chazz Princeton, when a voice cut through the arena from somewhere nearby.
A woman's voice. Clear and cool.
A tall figure stood at the entrance with her arms folded and her brow furrowed.
Gold hair, blue and white uniform, short blue skirt. She carried herself with the kind of effortless composure that made the air around her feel a few degrees colder.
"Whoa," Syrus breathed beside Rowan. "She's incredible."
Rowan recognized her immediately. Alexis Rhodes.
The same Obelisk Blue senior who had been watching the entrance exam alongside Chazz earlier that day.
Jaden, predictably, had no idea who she was.
"Senior Rhodes." Chazz flicked his hair back with practiced nonchalance.
"This arrogant new student got lucky against Crowler and seems to think that means something. I was simply going to show him how dueling actually works."
The first faint signs of his future comedy were already visible.
"The Slifer Red welcome reception is about to start," Alexis said, completely ignoring Chazz's explanation.
"There's no time for a duel right now."
Her tone made it clear this was not a suggestion.
"Fine. We're leaving." Chazz clicked his tongue and motioned to his two followers, visibly dissatisfied but unwilling to skip the welcome event entirely.
Before he left, he turned back to Rowan with a grin.
"If you've got the guts, come back here tonight after the reception. We'll finish what we started."
Then he was gone.
Alexis turned to Rowan.
"Don't let Chazz bait you into anything, especially not a card-stakes duel. He and his group came up through the junior division together. They are not people to take lightly."
Her voice carried genuine warning rather than condescension. "Several students who challenged them ended up losing badly, and some never recovered from it. A few dropped out entirely."
Rowan stood there with a mildly pained expression.
He knew perfectly well that Alexis meant every word of this kindly.
That was not the issue. The issue was that he had just watched a stack of Emotion Points nearly evaporate in real time, and he was now standing in front of an exceptionally composed and formidable older student trying very hard not to think about how satisfying it would be to shake that composure.
Still. The evening would come eventually. Chazz would still be there, still be aggravating, and still be worth every point.
"The Slifer Red reception will be starting soon as well," Alexis added. "You should head back before you miss it."
"Appreciated." Rowan gave a small wave and let it go.
He meant it sincerely, actually.
Knowing the story the way he did, he understood the intent behind her words better than Jaden or Syrus ever could in this moment.
And he was also genuinely hungry.
Food first. Chazz later.
Alexis watched him walk away, the others trailing behind him, and her brow furrowed just slightly.
"He doesn't look even slightly deterred," she muttered to herself, somewhere between exasperated and curious.
...
The Slifer Red dormitory common room had been arranged into something resembling a small private canteen for the occasion.
Long rectangular wooden tables, wooden benches, a raised table at the front that presumably belonged to the dorm's supervising teacher.
That table was currently occupied by a stout brown cat with the character for "king" marked on its forehead, fast asleep.
Every place at the other tables had a tray set out.
Rice, curry mapo tofu, tamagoyaki, and a small dish of pickled dried fish.
"The gap between dorms really is exactly as bad as I remembered," Rowan said under his breath.
"The other dorms are probably having a full banquet right now."
He was not complaining about the taste, which was actually surprisingly decent.
The problem was that if memory served, this was more or less what Slifer Red served every single day.
Dried fish and curry mapo tofu, rotating occasionally, forever.
Even good food got old when it never changed.
He was still chewing a piece of tamagoyaki when an idea struck him.
Chazz Princeton came from the Chazz Corporation.
A genuinely wealthy family, if he remembered correctly.
Which meant tonight's duel was not just about Emotion Points.
It was also a perfectly reasonable opportunity to fleece someone.
Across campus, in the considerably more luxurious Obelisk Blue men's dormitory banquet hall, Chazz Princeton suddenly sneezed.
A chill ran through him that he could not explain.
Something, somewhere, felt deeply ominous.