Chapter 116: Bastion: Are You Bullying Honest People?!

"That face... Atticus!"

Kaiser Zane caught sight of the face Rowan had turned toward them, and a look of shock crossed his features at once. He'd recognized his close friend instantly.

"One of the attacking Seven Stars Shadow Duelists turns out to be Alexis's missing older brother? What in the world is going on here?"

Chazz asked, thoroughly bewildered. At the same time, he glanced over at Jaden and the other two lying nearby, still fast asleep, and couldn't help adding another question.

"And those three bottom-of-the-class stragglers, Jaden and the rest, they're not dead, are they?"

Kaiser Zane and Bastion looked over at Rowan and Alexis with the same puzzled question written on their faces.

"This isn't the place to get into all that. Let's get my brother to the Duel Academy infirmary for treatment first."

Alexis cut in, worry in her eyes as she glanced at her unconscious brother, heading off Chazz and Zane before they could keep asking questions. After all, even though Rowan had seemingly held back at the critical final moment of the duel, apparently trying to spare her brother, he'd still come away with serious injuries, dueling under Darkness's control the way he had.

"As for who carries Atticus to the infirmary, Bastion, I'll leave that to you. You're the one who works out every day, after all."

Rowan nodded along in agreement, and with that, handed off the job to Bastion, who'd only just arrived.

"..." Bastion's mouth twitched. He very much wanted to point out why it had to be him. If anyone should be carrying Atticus, shouldn't it be whichever one of you is closest with Alexis? That's you, isn't it?!

But then he saw Chazz and Kaiser Zane, clearly eager to avoid getting roped in themselves, siding with Rowan and nodding right along. Bastion could only stare, dumbfounded. He couldn't shake the feeling that he was being taken advantage of for being the reasonable one. None of the benefits were his, and yet somehow he was the one stuck doing the heavy lifting.

A short while later, they'd all made their way to the Duel Academy infirmary. Alexis's brother, Atticus Rhodes, had been laid out on one of the beds, an oxygen mask fitted over his face as he was treated.

The nurse tending to him was none other than Nurse Fontaine, with her voluminous hair and crisp white uniform.

"Nurse Fontaine, how's my brother doing?"

Once Nurse Fontaine finished the initial treatment and straightened back up, Alexis asked, worry plain in her voice.

"He hasn't regained consciousness yet, but there's no need to worry. There's no danger to his life."

Nurse Fontaine reassured her at once. As the supervisor of the Obelisk Blue girls' dormitory, often short-handed and relying on Alexis and her two closest friends for small favors, she and Alexis got along quite well.

"Well, since everything's under control here, I'll go get some rest."

Rowan said, stifling a yawn. He'd been playing cards all night without a break, and he was feeling it now.

"Wait, wait just a second!"

Alexis, who'd just relaxed at Nurse Fontaine's news, spoke up quickly to stop him.

"You just fought a Shadow Duel against my possessed brother, and you took a direct hit from Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon's attack."

"You're going to do exactly what my brother's doing right now and stay here in the infirmary, and let Nurse Fontaine check you over for any injuries!"

"That's true. A Shadow Duel is a terrifying thing, and it can leave real injuries behind. Even if you look fine right now, it's still better to get checked."

Kaiser Zane nodded along as well, letting a rare flicker of real concern show, his tone unusually grave.

While Nurse Fontaine had been examining Atticus, Alexis had already gone through everything that had happened, with Jaden, Syrus, and Chumley filling in the rest. By now, Kaiser Zane, Bastion, and the others already knew the full picture. Although the new deck Rowan had used, one built specifically to slaughter Dragon-Type monsters, seemed almost absurdly nightmarish once again, there was no denying that Rowan had saved his close friend, Atticus Rhodes.

"If you got taken down early by some 'mere' Shadow Duel, and I lost my chance at a rematch with you, that would honestly be a real headache for me."

Chazz said, nodding along. The line came out absolutely dripping with tsundere energy, enough to make Rowan stare, sweat dropping, dying to say something about it.

You're a grown man, what are you even doing being tsundere right now...

Still, it wasn't hard to catch the roundabout friendliness underneath it. The real issue was, he genuinely wasn't hurt at all. As far as Rowan was concerned, if it weren't for the fact that he'd wanted to test out exactly how well the Crimson Dragon's protective power from his Mark of the Crimson Dragon — Dragon's Head actually worked, he wouldn't even have needed to take that hit from Darkness's Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon in the first place.

"No need for any more excuses. All you need to do right now is cooperate."

Alexis gave him no room to keep wriggling out of it, dead serious as she grabbed his arm and hauled him over to another bed nearby. She stood there with her arms crossed, eyes locked firmly on him, gesturing for him to lie down properly.

"..." Rowan's mouth twitched, a headache blooming instantly. Judging by the sheer force of her presence, there was no getting out of lying down today.

Even Bastion and Jaden and the others were visibly stunned by the sheer intensity radiating off Alexis, cold sweat breaking out on all their faces.

So Alexis actually had a side to her that intimidating?

No wonder she was known as the Ice Queen of the Obelisk Blue girls' dorm. Even Nurse Fontaine and Kaiser Zane, who knew her personality better than most, couldn't help their expressions turning a little strange. Even they, it seemed, had rarely seen Alexis quite this forceful.

Was this level of concern simply because Rowan had just saved her brother?