Chapter 102: What Are You Even Tsundere About…?!

"So this is where everyone ended up."

Rowan was still making a satisfied circuit of his newly completed luxury cabin when a familiar, mild-mannered voice drifted in from the doorway.

He turned to find the narrow-eyed dormitory supervisor, Professor Banner, letting himself in with his usual unhurried smile.

Banner made it exactly as far as the entrance before stopping dead.

The living room alone pulled him up short.

...That was quite a living room.

And was that a hot spring he could see around the corner at the back?

"Professor Banner, is something the matter?" Rowan, Alexis, Jaden, and the others drifted in from various corners of the cabin where they'd been exploring, assembling in the carpeted front room to face him.

"Ah, haha... there is, actually." Banner stole one more wistful look at the living room, then cleared his throat and refocused.

He stepped to one side.

Behind him stood a familiar figure in black, every hair on his head defying gravity in its characteristic way.

Chazz.

"Wait, Chazz? You're still here? Why haven't you gone back to North Academy?"

Jaden asked, genuinely surprised, landing the question with the precision of someone who hadn't meant to twist the knife but absolutely had.

"The situation is this," Banner said, fielding the confused looks from the group with a calm smile.

"Chazz has decided not to return to North Academy. He'll be staying on at Duel Academy."

"However, given the time he spent away and the coursework he missed during his withdrawal, regulations don't allow him to continue as an Obelisk Blue student. He'll be reassigned to Slifer Red."

"So Chazz the Third is a Slifer Red student now," Rowan said, nodding without any particular surprise.

Certain details had shifted with his presence in this world, but this one had apparently stayed on course.

"It's Chazz Princeton!" Chazz bristled like a cat that had been poked, spinning toward Rowan with immediate indignation.

Then he turned his head pointedly to the side and said, "And the other reason I came was to settle the bet."

"Don't think this is over. I won't lose again."

Without turning back around, Chazz extended one arm toward Rowan and held out a card, the kind that could be used to draw funds at any time.

The agreed stake from the duel.

"You know, for a grown man, you're doing an impressive amount of sulking."

Rowan stared at the arm stiffly jutting in his direction, expression flatlining.

"You can't even turn your head to hand something over?"

He wasn't blind to the subtext.

Chazz had come in person, which almost certainly meant some part of him was grateful that the duel had accidentally smoothed things over with his brothers.

That was fine.

But Rowan's imagination couldn't help noting that if Alexis, or honestly even Jasmine or Mindy, had tried to hand something over while looking the other way like this, it would at minimum have been easier on the eyes.

Chazz doing it was simply a flavor of experience Rowan hadn't asked for.

Was Chazz perhaps a distant relative of Ms. Dorothy? The thought arrived unbidden and refused to leave.

Alexis and the others covered their faces in secondhand embarrassment, not quite able to watch.

Two more knives, directly into Chazz's dignity.

"Enough. Next time I'll come fully prepared and I won't lose."

Chazz turned back around and delivered the line with practiced composure.

Rowan accepted the card without ceremony, pulled out his Duel Academy communicator, and with a single beep transferred the full amount into his own account.

"Rowan, how many digits is that..." Jaden and Syrus peered over at the balance now displayed on the communicator screen and fell into undisguised, mournful envy.

The two of them had never given much thought to money. Dueling was everything.

But the luxury lunches and the luxury cabin had landed back-to-back like a one-two combination directly to their understanding of how the world worked.

In this dueling world, it turned out, wealth was a real and relevant force.

Even Alexis and her friends had one brief, involuntary moment of wanting to push a certain filthy rich somebody into a pond.

"Excellent."

Rowan pocketed the communicator with quiet satisfaction.

Financial concerns for the foreseeable future: resolved.

"One more thing. Chancellor Sheppard has asked that Rowan, Jaden, Alexis, and the others come by his office tomorrow morning," Banner added, as though just remembering it.

"Again?! The chancellor's office again?!" Jaden and Syrus immediately looked alarmed.

Were they getting expelled? Was that it?

Even Alexis and her friends exchanged uncertain glances, though they were less worried than the boys.

After what had happened today, Rowan was arguably the most publicly recognized student Duel Academy had, on par with Zane as the school's signature name.

Even if something came up, the administration would almost certainly look the other way.

"Chazz, you're included as well," Banner added.

Chazz said nothing.

"Summoning that many people to the chancellor's office at once..." Rowan raised an eyebrow.

Something was already forming at the edge of his thoughts. He glanced at Banner with a measuring look.

This was probably what he'd sensed coming last night. Whatever Banner was quietly setting in motion behind his pleasant, half-lidded expression seemed to be arriving on schedule.

"Kriiiik."

The round Kuriboh didn't materialize, but its voice chirped softly from somewhere inside Rowan's deck.

"Well then, I won't interrupt the celebration any further."

Banner gave a cheerful wave and turned to go.

Then he stopped, turned back around, and added with eyes glistening at a level that was almost concerning:

"Though of course, if the invitation extended to your old teacher as well, and perhaps a proper meal was involved, that would be even better!"

Chazz and Jaden both tripped over their own feet.

Rowan's mouth twitched.

He kept Banner anyway.

A luxury bento order from Ms. Dorothy's shop, enough to fill the living room table, seemed like the right way to mark the cabin's official completion.

One or two extra people only helped the atmosphere.

...