Chapter 155:

"I can't believe we were actually gone two whole days in that Duel Spirit world. It genuinely felt like only a few hours passed."

That evening, Alexis Rhodes sat cross-legged on a cushion in the living room of the luxury cabin, still visibly stunned by the news she'd just received.

The ones delivering that news were none other than Chazz Princeton and Bastion Misawa.

"Seriously, you two, mooching another meal off me?"

Rowan stared, a vein practically visible on his forehead, watching Chazz shovel rice balls and sushi into his mouth one after another with Bastion right beside him, unable to stop the corner of his mouth twitching as he grumbled.

He genuinely wanted to send Camula and Ishizu, the young Gravekeeper's Assailant, straight over to Duel Academy's lake and be done with it.

After getting back to Slifer Red at noon with Alexis, Jaden, and the others, they'd only eaten a light meal, boxed lunches Camula had gone ahead and picked up from Ms. Dorothy's shop, before everyone split up to rest for a while.

Then, not long after, these two had somehow gotten wind of it and shown up at his door.

Apparently they'd been living out of the infirmary for the past two days.

"Mostly just bad timing, honestly. Chazz and I found out right around dinnertime, so we figured we'd just come straight here," Bastion explained, his face flushing slightly as he kept eating.

"Exactly. Consider this sushi and these rice balls a reward for the man who just took down the Seven Stars Shadow Duelists," Chazz declared, having apparently abandoned the concept of shame entirely, a plum rice ball in one hand and a roe sushi piece in the other, stuffing his face with obvious delight.

Still fully committed to his personal philosophy that every rice ball he ate off of Rowan clawed back a tiny sliver of the tens of millions, hundreds of millions, he'd lost to the guy.

"Mmph, mmph... water!!"

After inhaling three rice balls and five pieces of sushi in a row, Chazz choked, pounding at his own chest, nearly comedic-death-by-sushi.

He snatched the drink bottle right out of Jaden's hand and downed it in one go.

Rowan and Alexis both watched with faintly strange expressions, sushi halfway to their mouths, frozen in place.

Their eyes drifted over to Chazz, then to Jaden, who looked equally lost.

Did that count as... indirectly...

Realization hit Chazz and Jaden both at the exact same moment, and their faces went green.

Both of them promptly looked like their souls had left their bodies, collapsing to the floor with all the will to live drained out of them.

Two salted fish who had lost every dream and future they'd ever had.

Chazz swore, in that heartbroken moment, that he never wanted to set foot in this cursed place again.

"Ahem. So, does that mean you two already took down that Seven Stars thief gang over the past two days?"

Rowan, holding back a laugh, steered the conversation back on track, turning to Bastion, the only one still capable of forming coherent answers.

Beside him, Alexis, along with Syrus and Chumley (who were busy checking on the still-dazed Jaden), all turned to look at Bastion too, waiting for his answer.

"Yeah. That Seven Stars thief gang, as it turns out, was actually just these five cards."

Bastion reached down to the spot on the floor where Chazz had been sitting and picked up five cards Chazz had apparently brought along from the start, setting them on the ground.

He held them up for Rowan and the others to see.

On them were five figures, four men and one woman, all dressed in the same odd, tan robes and red trousers of a bandit's getup.

"Wait, that's Chick! The first-year who got expelled from Slifer Red!"

"And that one's one of the Academy's security guards, Officer Cliff!"

Syrus and Chumley both blurted out recognitions at once, pointing at two of the cards in turn.

"The rest of them look a little familiar too. That female bandit, isn't that Nurse Meanae, the school nurse assigned to the Obelisk Blue girls' dorm?"

Alexis chimed in, sounding equally surprised as she picked out another face.

"And that one's the maintenance worker for Slifer Red, Gorg..."

"Wait, how does Alexis even know who the Slifer Red maintenance guy is?"

Bastion asked, scratching his head, genuinely puzzled.

"Well, that's because..." Alexis froze for a second, clearly not expecting the conversation to swing back around to her.

She shot Rowan a quick glance before scrambling for a reasonable excuse.

"I'm staying here with Rowan right now. If something ever needs fixing around the place, I obviously can't keep bothering him about it, so I figured I should know the basics ahead of time!"

"Ah, that makes sense." Bastion and Syrus both nodded, immediately convinced.

Not reading into it any further at all.

Rowan, of course, saw right through it in an instant.

Alexis was clearly picking things up because she wanted to help out around the place however she could.

That way, if something ever came up, she'd be able to handle the household herself.

Crouched behind Rowan, playing her role as the dutiful maid, Camula shot the girl a look of open disdain.

She'd had a feeling about this for a while now.

And she was fairly certain she was starting to catch a distinct, sour whiff of "something" in the air.

"So if you and Chazz already beat them, why were you both stuck in the infirmary for two whole days?"

Noticing that Rowan's expression had shifted, subtly different from before, Alexis quickly changed the subject, turning back to Bastion with the question that had actually been bothering her.

At that, Rowan found himself curious too, glancing over at Bastion.

Both Bastion and Chazz still visibly carried their Spirit Keys on them.

Yet somehow, both of them had apparently spent two full days recovering in the infirmary.

Shadow Duels could certainly leave lasting injuries, sure. But logically, that should only happen to one duelist at a time.

If Chazz lost, then Bastion would be the one to step up next.

There was no scenario where both keys should still be intact, and both of them somehow ended up injured in the infirmary at the same time.

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