Chapter 32
"Hold on -- ending my turn without doing anything was provocation, and then summoning a monster was also provocation? That's a bit of a no-win situation, don't you think?"
Rowan put away his duel disk and spread his hands with genuine helplessness.
"Besides, Kuriboh was genuinely the only thing in my hand I could summon at that point."
It happened to be true. And he had been planning to bring it out anyway, to try to accelerate the Spirit's awakening.
But the timing had clearly landed wrong.
Alexis blinked at his expression. At the explanation hidden inside the complaint.
Then, without quite intending to, she laughed. A short, soft sound.
Something about the duel, which had been irritating her enormously seconds ago, suddenly felt considerably less so.
Even a little entertaining.
This person was aggravating. That much was beyond dispute. But he was also, undeniably, interesting.
"Don't think for a second we believe that!" Jasmine started up again, still not ready to let it go.
"And you probably think it doesn't matter either way what we think, so --"
"Jasmine."
"...Alexis?"
"We lost. That's all there is to it." Alexis's voice was calm, the irritation already settled into something quieter.
"Don't embarrass yourself."
She turned to Rowan and the others.
"As agreed, I'll keep what happened with Syrus tonight to myself."
"Then we'll be heading back, Alexis-senpai."
Rowan gave her a small nod. He had a bed and it was late at night.
Unlike a certain hot-blooded idiot with an apparently bottomless appetite for card games, he had no interest in staying out on a lake any longer than necessary.
"You don't need to be that formal. We've dueled. Just Alexis is fine."
She nodded back at him and smiled slightly.
"See you tomorrow, then. Alexis."
Rowan had no particular feelings about what to call her.
What he did have was a reasonable read on her character -- outwardly cool, occasionally sharp-tongued, but genuinely warm once she counted someone as worth her time.
The way she had stepped in to question the duel with Chazz the previous night, before she knew the full situation, had already told him that much.
He stepped from his boat directly onto Jaden's with a single easy stride, immediately claiming a passenger spot and showing no intention of paddling anything himself.
Free ride. Obvious call.
"Goodnight, Ale -- Alexis-senpai!" Syrus and the others called their farewells as the boat pushed off, all of them working the oars together.
"That person..."
Alexis watched the boat shrink into the dark, three boys rowing and one sitting comfortably among them doing absolutely nothing.
A small smile crossed her face before she was aware of it.
Jasmine and Mindy both noticed.
They exchanged a glance.
Something about Alexis tonight felt different. They couldn't quite name it, but it was there.
Though it couldn't possibly be because of that infuriating person called Rowan. That would be absurd.
What they had thought they noticed back in the lecture hall must have been a misreading.
The two of them quietly filed the feeling away and followed Alexis back inside.
The lake went still.
...
"Alchemy, in simple terms, refers to the transmutation of common metals into gold. More broadly, it is the transformation of ordinary matter into a perfect substance..."
The next morning.
The main lecture hall of Duel Academy, theory class underway.
At the front, a narrow-eyed man in glasses sat on a chair with a cat in his lap, delivering his lesson in an unhurried, mildly sleepy cadence.
This was Professor Banner -- the Slifer Red dorm supervisor, whom Rowan had barely crossed paths with in the days since arriving at the Academy.
Each of the three dorms had a faculty supervisor responsible for general guidance and basic welfare, someone to call on when situations arose and to keep the dorm running within Academy regulations.
Professor Banner, with his particular expertise in alchemy, held that role for Slifer Red.
In this world, alchemy was a real and functioning thing. Rowan had zero interest in it.
As far as he understood it, alchemy was ultimately just another application of Duel Spirit energy.
Which meant his System gave him a more direct route to everything alchemy could offer, without the coursework.
He sat in the back row of the raised seating, chin resting on one hand, projecting the general appearance of someone either asleep or deeply spaced out.
In reality, he was looking at the System interface floating in front of him, invisible to anyone else.
He was reviewing last night's results and the newly refreshed shop.
[Name: Rowan] [Skills: Unshakeable Mind / Spirit Vision (perceive and call to Duel Monster Spirits)] [Current Decks: Dark Magician OTK / Lava Golem Lockdown] [Emotion Points: 2200]
Alexis alone had generated 1700 Emotion Points in a single duel.
Rowan took a quiet moment to appreciate that internally.
Genuinely generous of her.
The unfortunate part was that he wouldn't be able to run that back again for a while.
Even if he wanted a rematch, Alexis probably wasn't going to agree to one anytime soon.
Her blood pressure had taken enough of a beating for one evening, and there were only so many visits to the infirmary a person could be expected to absorb.
Still, the rest of Duel Academy was full of potential.
He was not worried in the slightest about finding new opportunities to earn Emotion Points.
Or, as he preferred to frame it, places where he could put his generous and compassionate nature to meaningful use.