Chapter 105: Going for the Jugular Against the Future Brother-in-Law

Rowan turned his attention to the system shop's refreshed options with mild anticipation.

[System Shop (Refreshes Every Two Days)]

Today's Options: [Deck: Ancient Gear Deck (Crowler Edition)] 500 Points [Deck: Buster Blader Deck (Dragon-Killer Build)] 1500 Points [Deck: Fader of Darkness Deck (Mill and Burn Build)] 1500 Points [Skill: Ultimate Still Water Clarity (Once per duel, draw any card you personally know of, even if it is not in your current deck. Note: Prerequisites are Superior Still Water Clarity and the complete power of the Crimson Dragon (all six Marks))] 3000 Points

"Ultimate Still Water Clarity?!"

Rowan's eyes lit up the moment he read the name and effect.

Then he read the prerequisites. And the cost.

His expression went flat.

Was this system seriously dangling that in front of him right now?

The skill was, plainly speaking, a legendary guaranteed draw. Any card he personally knew existed, once per duel, pulled directly to his hand on demand.

The problem was obvious. Where exactly was he supposed to collect all six Crimson Dragon Marks?

The one silver lining was that the system had, in its roundabout way, confirmed his suspicion.

There were indeed six Crimson Dragon Marks in total.

Rowan peeled his covetous gaze away from the fourth option and redirected it to the three deck choices above.

All three were genuinely solid options, he had to admit.

Crowler's Ancient Gear deck was no pushover.

Ancient Gear monsters with attack power in the three to four thousand range, each one preventing the opponent from activating Spell or Trap cards during the attack, and all of them dealing piercing damage through Defense Position monsters.

It was already halfway into respectable territory by his standards.

Arguably stronger and more straightforward to use than the incomplete Cyber Dragon deck he had lifted from Zane's template.

Under other circumstances he wouldn't have minded picking it up.

But then he looked at the next two options.

Both of them were pedigree darkness, precision-engineered for psychological suffering.

The Buster Blader deck was built to hunt Dragon-type monsters specifically.

For someone like Seto Kaiba, one of the academy's directors and a man whose entire identity was wrapped up in his Blue-Eyes White Dragons, this deck would be less of a duel and more of a targeted intervention.

A corrective treatment for an unhealthy dependency on high-ATK Dragon-type monsters.

The Fader of Darkness deck took a broader approach: mill the opponent's deck into the Graveyard, drain their Life Points as it went, and watch the whole structure collapse from the inside.

The Buster Blader deck was, for Dragon-type users, more suffocating than anything the Ojama deck or Shadow HERO deck could offer.

Against non-Dragon decks, though, the edge dulled considerably.

The Fader deck had no such limitation. It worked on anyone.

Still, when Rowan considered the Seven Stars shadow duelists and recalled that one of them was, if memory served, a committed and enthusiastic Dragon-type specialist...

He made his decision without further deliberation.

And if he remembered correctly, that particular duelist was someone connected to Alexis's missing older brother.

Which meant Rowan would have the opportunity to help him see the error of his ways.

Rowan's expression settled into one of solemn, righteous resolve.

It was simply who he was.

He was the kind of person who helped others. He couldn't change that about himself.

...

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Rowan had finished his soak, dressed, and was heading up to the second-floor bedroom when the knock came.

He stopped and looked at the clock in the living room.

Nearly midnight.

"Since when do the Seven Stars people knock?" he muttered to himself, genuinely puzzled.

Jaden and the others were almost certainly asleep by now. So was Professor Banner.

If Rowan hadn't spent slightly too long in the hot spring on account of it being his first proper use of the cabin's indoor bath, he'd have been asleep himself.

His working assumption was that the visitor had to be one of the Seven Stars shadow duelists.

Several of them, he knew, had infiltrated Duel Academy under assumed identities and were already somewhere on campus.

He opened the door.

And stopped.

The person standing outside was Alexis.

"...Alexis? What are you doing here?"

Rowan looked at her with a mildly complicated expression.

She wasn't planning to stay the night, was she?

If so, he supposed he could be gracious about it. He could spare half the bed.

"After I got back to the Obelisk Blue girls' dormitory, I kept thinking about it and couldn't quite settle down," Alexis said, stepping inside when he gestured her in. She spoke without quite meeting his eyes.

"You and Jaden are both strong duelists, I know that. But the Seven Stars shadow duelists might not know that. Slifer Red isn't exactly where anyone expects to find the strongest students on campus."

"So I came over to check. Maybe even run into one of the Seven Stars people if they show up tonight."

Not everyone had caught the previous day's broadcast of the competition duel against North Academy.

And even those who had might draw the wrong conclusion from it.

A shadow duelist who knew Rowan's capabilities might decide that was reason enough to target him specifically, arriving prepared with something tailored to counter him.

After turning it over in her head from multiple angles, alone in her room at the Obelisk Blue dormitory, Alexis had decided she wasn't comfortable doing nothing.

She had considered bringing Jasmine and Mindy along, partly so that showing up alone at this hour wouldn't look strange.

But both of them were already asleep, and waking them felt like more trouble than it was worth.

So she had come alone.