Chapter 11
Ten o'clock at night. The Academy dueling arena.
The campus had gone quiet.
Nothing but the soft, steady chorus of insects drifting through the dark.
Rowan had eaten his fill, gone back to his room, and even stretched out for a while to let the food settle before Jaden and Syrus came knocking to collect him.
The three of them arrived at the arena together.
Inside, a familiar figure in a blue Obelisk coat was pacing with his back turned, two equally forgettable lackeys flanking him on either side.
Chazz Princeton. Right on schedule.
"You took long enough! I was starting to think you'd lost your nerve!"
Chazz spun around the moment his lackeys alerted him, voice sharp with impatience.
"Why would I not come?"
Rowan spread his hands casually. "Haven't you heard the famous saying?"
"What saying?"
"Beat Chazz Princeton after dinner. Better than sitting around doing nothing." Rowan nodded as though this were ancient wisdom.
"Dinner's done. Of course I came."
"Oh, is that really a saying?"
Jaden and Syrus both blinked, apparently taking it at face value.
They did not know where it came from, but the tone was unmistakable.
The breezy, unbothered ease of someone heading out to discipline a particularly tiresome child.
A soft laugh came from the direction of the entrance.
Alexis, who had just arrived at the arena doors, pressed a hand to her mouth and looked away.
"Insufferable! Stop making things up! You dare mock the great Chazz Princeton?!" Chazz's voice jumped half an octave.
He stabbed a finger toward Rowan. "Here are the stakes. Each of us wagers our rarest card. When you lose, I take the most valuable card in your deck."
"Hold on." Rowan raised a hand.
He smiled. "You wouldn't mind if I adjusted the terms a little?"
"Scared already? What do you want to change?" one of the lackeys demanded.
Chazz himself said nothing, but his eyes narrowed. Jaden and Syrus both looked over curiously.
Even Alexis, from her spot near the entrance, let a trace of interest show.
"If I lose, the rare card is yours, same as you said."
Rowan slotted his deck into the Duel Disk the Academy had issued him earlier that day.
"But if I win, skip the card. Twenty million in cash will do fine."
Rare cards were valuable to most people. To Rowan, winning one would not do much for him practically.
Cash, on the other hand, had immediate applications. Better food. Better living arrangements.
Possibly a decent structure built right next to the Slifer dorm, something with slightly more dignity than what he was currently sleeping in.
"It doesn't matter what you ask for," Chazz said without hesitation.
"You're not going to win."
The rare card in his deck was worth around twenty million anyway, acquired through the full weight of the Chazz Corporation's resources.
The terms suited him fine.
"Then let's get on with it."
"Duel!"
Both Duel Disks snapped open in a flash of red light. Five opening cards each.
Life point displays flickered to life at 4000 on both sides.
"I'll even let you go first," Chazz announced, loud enough for the room.
"A gesture of generosity from an Obelisk Blue elite to a Slifer Red nobody."
He was confident Rowan's luck had run dry. Nobody drew five pieces of Exodia twice.
That kind of opening hand was a once-in-a-lifetime accident, not a skill.
"I'll take it then."
Rowan looked at Chazz the way a farmer looks at a particularly healthy sheep. Calm. Evaluating. Pleased.
Without a moment's hesitation, he activated Still Water Clarity.
Once per duel. Guaranteed.
"My turn. Draw!"
The card came up from the deck.
"That feeling again!"
Down at the edge of the field, Jaden's eyes snapped to Rowan, fixed and alert.
The same sensation from the entrance exam that morning. That brief, strange pressure, present and then gone.
Alexis had moved closer to the field as well, watching with open interest.
"Chazz, the path to victory is already set," Rowan said, barely glancing at the card he had drawn.
"What did you just say?!" Chazz's eyes narrowed.
Rowan drew a Spell Card from his hand and held it up.
"Spell Card activation from hand. Double Summon."
The card's image materialized in front of him, green and glowing, floating above the field.
"By the effect of Double Summon, I gain one additional Normal Summon this turn."
He pulled two identical cards from his hand and set them on the Duel Disk in quick succession, both placed horizontally.
"I Summon two monsters in Defense Position. Royal Magical Library."
Royal Magical Library Level 4 / LIGHT Attribute ATK: 0 / DEF: 2000
A warm amber light filled the field as two brown fortress-like structures materialized side by side, settling into their defensive positions atop the glowing outlines of the summoning zones.