Chapter 101: Rowan, the Filthy Rich Tycoon!

"Based on the results of the Duel Academy versus North Academy competition, we will now have Duel Academy's campus representative present the mysterious prize to the winning school's chancellor!"

Professor Crowler took the stage on the dueling platform to make the announcement.

A section of the floor rose with a mechanical clunk.

From the lift emerged a figure in an orange backless dress, built with the solid, generous proportions of roughly three Alexis's stacked sideways, wearing a pair of thick-framed glasses and beaming with uncomplicated goodwill.

The Duel Academy school store owner, Ms. Dorothy, in full ceremonial glory.

"..."

Rowan immediately covered his face with one hand, equal parts speechless and unwilling to look directly at the situation unfolding before him.

He pivoted and spent a pointed moment studying Alexis from the side instead.

For his mental health.

Because otherwise he was going to have nightmares.

In her usual clothes, Ms. Dorothy gave off perfectly warm, approachable auntie energy.

Genuinely endearing.

In that orange backless dress, however.

Rowan could only describe the effect as: airborne elder magnificence. Unlimited range.

Catastrophic payload.

Bastion, Jaden, and Syrus, all seeing this for the first time, stood with their mouths open, cold sweat running freely, watching Chancellor Sheppard accept the mysterious prize with every indication of personal delight.

A memory that would fuel nightmares for weeks.

The more experienced Zane and the older Duel Academy students had already looked away well in advance.

Alexis alone had her head bowed at a careful angle, staring at something near her feet with studied concentration, cheeks faintly pink.

She stayed that way until the whole ceremony concluded, never quite resurfacing.

...

"Alexis, are you feeling alright?"

Jasmine and Mindy, flanking her on either side, leaned in with genuine concern.

She'd been flushed and slightly unfocused this whole time. It really did look like she wasn't feeling well.

Rowan noticed and glanced over at her.

He could see the color in her face.

Which promptly deepened by a visible degree the moment she registered him looking.

"I'm fine! I was just thinking about something!" Alexis snapped back to attention and waved the question off quickly.

Then she shot Rowan a brief, faintly irritated glance before looking away.

Rowan stared after her, mildly baffled.

She got misread as feeling unwell and somehow that was his problem?

All he'd done was glance over twice after getting his eyes assaulted by the ceremonial outfit situation.

Basic optical first aid. Completely justified.

Besides, Alexis wasn't the type to blush over something as minor as being looked at.

With people she didn't know well, she'd just as likely cut them down with a few dry words.

That had always been her default.

Idiot.

Alexis caught Rowan's genuinely confused expression and felt the embarrassment in her chest shift slightly sideways into relief.

She let out a quiet breath.

The actual reason she'd gone red had nothing to do with being looked at.

It was because she had briefly, and with complete wrongness, convinced herself that Rowan kept glancing her way because he wanted a prize from her too.

The way Ms. Dorothy had gone and kissed the winning chancellor on the cheek, and the timing of Rowan's glances right afterward, had lined up in a way that made her brain jump to a very inconvenient conclusion.

It made a certain kind of logic. Rowan had won the duel. The prize technically went to the chancellor.

If he felt like his victory had come without any real reward, that wasn't unreasonable.

And the timing had been so perfectly awkward.

So she'd spent an uncomfortable stretch of time silently debating with herself whether or not she would actually go along with it if he asked.

She hadn't reached a conclusion.

And now it turned out she'd misread the entire situation completely, which meant she didn't have to reach one at all.

A temporary reprieve.

Which was good. Because she genuinely hadn't known what she was going to do.

This was not how she had planned for any of this to go.

Rowan, who had not followed a single step of that internal journey and had simply concluded that Alexis was probably dealing with something personal, decided to leave it alone.

He wrote it off as one of those things. Moved on.

...

With the ceremony wrapped up, Rowan headed back to the Slifer Red dormitory with Jaden and the others.

He spared no further thought for North Academy or the competition. He had a luxury cabin waiting for inspection.

Word apparently traveled fast, because Alexis and her two friends ended up tagging along as well.

"This place is incredible! It's two stories?!" Syrus walked in and immediately forgot how to be composed.

His eyes went enormous. The envy practically leaked out of him.

He served his purpose as an audience member with great sincerity.

"The living room alone is bigger than the room the three of us share in the main dorm," Bastion said, taking in the generous dimensions of the space.

"The soundproofing seems really solid too. You'd never have to worry about being disturbed," Jaden added, equally, mournfully impressed.

He kept walking with Rowan deeper into the cabin.

Then they found the bathroom.

"There's an indoor hot spring bath?!"

Jasmine and Mindy said in unison, blinking.

Even the girls' dormitory in Obelisk Blue didn't have private bath facilities.

Shared baths were normal enough. But having a private hot spring for one person, or at most a small group, was on a completely different level.

"When it comes to comfortable living, nobody beats you," Alexis said, pressing two fingers to her temple with a look of tired admiration as she took in the room.

When she glanced over at Rowan, the expression in her eyes carried the particular warmth of someone who had quietly accepted the existence of a person who operated entirely outside of normal expectations.