Chapter 136: Randomly Selecting One Unlucky Victim for Emotional Damage

"Go explore the ruins behind the island, at the back of the academy...?"

Hearing the compensation squinty-eyed Professor Banner was offering, Rowan's expression turned faintly skeptical.

He was more than a little tempted to call the man out on it.

Was Banner really doing this to make up for skimping on breakfast, or was this actually just a convenient way to lure Rowan, Jaden, and the others away for a while, making it easier for the rest of the Seven Stars Shadow Duelists to target whoever else was still holding an undefeated Spirit Key?

Still, there was one thing Professor Banner had gotten right.

Out at those ruins, he, Jaden, and the others might actually walk away with some pretty solid finds.

Items specifically meant to counter Shadow Duels, for instance, ones that could keep an opponent from pulling the same kind of cheating tricks Camula had used.

"If you want me to agree not to report you for secretly skimming off some of the Slifer Red dorm's food budget to buy cat food, that's not entirely out of the question."

Rowan rubbed his chin, considering it for a moment, before a mischievous idea suddenly flashed through his head, and he turned to Professor Banner with a sly grin.

"But just going out there to explore isn't quite enough on its own. How about this, Professor Banner, why don't you duel me for a bit too?"

"After all, there's hardly anyone left in the whole academy still willing to duel me. As a passionate, caring duelist devoted to healing others, it's honestly been weighing on me lately."

"..." Banner froze up completely at the words, a numb feeling washing over him.

He desperately wanted to ask Rowan how he could possibly say something like "passionate, caring duelist" with such a straight face.

From what Banner had heard through the grapevine, wasn't Rowan supposed to be the academy's own personal hellish massacre squad?

For a moment, Banner genuinely couldn't tell whether Rowan had somehow found out one of his secrets and was fishing to gauge his dueling strength before finishing him off, or whether Rowan was simply unable to find any other student willing to duel him, and had settled on randomly picking a "lucky teacher" to torment instead.

Still, seeing the easy, friendly smile on Rowan's face, with nothing that felt remotely hostile about it, Banner relaxed considerably.

He decided to just chalk this one up as bad luck, pull out some spare backup deck, and let himself get thoroughly demolished by Rowan for the sake of it.

A little while later, Rowan, thoroughly satisfied after farming a solid thousand-plus Emotion Points off squinty-eyed Professor Banner, made his way back to the living room of his luxurious little cabin.

The moment he stepped inside, he spotted the Ojama brothers, their cheeky, palm-sized figures zipping toward him at once, wiggling their little red underwear as they came in to claim their reward.

"Big brother, that vampire woman's agreed to your terms!" Ojama Yellow announced.

"This is all thanks to the tireless effort of us three Ojama brothers!" Ojama Green added.

"Ah, though we haven't quite gotten around to negotiating the whole bed-warming thing with her yet," big-nosed Ojama Black suddenly chimed in.

"No, wait, why are you three so fixated on that particular detail..." The corner of Rowan's mouth twitched, a whole head full of exasperation.

Then he glanced over at the sofa, where the dark card sealing Camula away had been flipped over.

The moment he took in the full picture, Rowan's expression turned distinctly strange.

There, on Camula's striking, sharp-featured face, someone had scrawled a whole collection of little turtles in black marker, along with a badly drawn pig's head, and a pair of curly mustache doodles, giving her the full unwanted makeover treatment.

Well, would you look at that. Was there any crueler punishment for a woman than this?

If there was, it could only be handing her a mirror afterward to see the results for herself.

Rowan strongly suspected, given how thoroughly mischievous the Ojama brothers had clearly been, that they'd actually gone through with exactly that.

"Kuri kuri?"

Just then, the round Kuriboh let out a confused cry, pulling a miniature fishing rod out from somewhere on the Ojama brothers with its tiny stubby hands, one that had clearly seen recent use.

"..." Rowan's expression turned strange all over again. He glanced over at the decorative goldfish bowl nearby, then back at the dark card sealing Camula away.

So the Ojama brothers had apparently been using the dark card as bait, dangling it over the goldfish bowl in the living room for some kind of impromptu fishing prank, just to scare somebody.

All he could say to the Ojama brothers was, as expected of you three.

When it came to mischief and tormenting people, they really did know their craft.

Sounded like he could keep leaving this sort of thing to them going forward. Rowan nodded to himself, considering it.

To borrow a line from Chazz's own comedic moment of enlightenment, back along the original timeline: even small fry had their uses.

"Brat! Get rid of these hideous drawings on my face already, I've agreed to your terms!"

Seeing Rowan reappear and pick up the dark card sealing her away, Camula, who'd been sitting there bound in chains with a face full of pure existential despair, suddenly perked right up, addressing Rowan with excitement.

"Brat...?" Rowan's expression darkened at once.

Then, with a perfectly blank face, he pulled out a marker of his own, deciding to personally demonstrate exactly what real artistic talent looked like, giving her face a fully committed makeover into something thoroughly ridiculous.

"!!!"

Camula immediately realized something had gone very wrong. That form of address a moment ago hadn't landed quite right, apparently.

But by the time she tried to correct herself, it was already far too late.

Rowan had already put pen to card, and the longer he worked, the more into it he got.

Gradually, the look on Camula's face grew even more thoroughly despairing than before.

Watching the reflection in the mirror the Ojama brothers held up beside the sofa, if given the choice, she would honestly have preferred the artistic skills of those three cheeky, 0 ATK small-fry Duel Spirits instead.

This irritating brat's drawing was simply too hideous to bear.

Once he'd finished sorting out the matter of how Camula addressed him, a little while later, Rowan lay back on the living room sofa like some kind of pampered noble, thoroughly pleased with himself, looking over the map of the island displayed on his Duel Academy communicator as he considered the upcoming ruins expedition in a couple of days.

Then he leaned over and took a comfortable sip from the juice straw dutifully held up right beside him, letting out a satisfied little hum.

Not far from Rowan, Camula, now dressed in full maid attire, stared daggers at him with a face full of pure resentment.

But with him holding all the leverage over her, she had no choice but to obediently crouch nearby, holding out his juice, not daring to make a single unnecessary move.

Even though she was out and about now, she still hadn't actually escaped the seal of that dark card.

She was simply allowed out temporarily, much like the other materialized Duel Spirits.

The moment anything affected that dark card, its effects would fall straight onto her as well.

And if Rowan ever felt like it, he could send her straight back inside whenever he pleased.