Chapter 194

"Could Professor Banner actually be the last Shadow Duelist among the Seven Stars' dark faction?!"

Bastion floated the theory, sounding genuinely stunned at his own suggestion.

Given how the Dark Scorpion Burglars had already once managed to infiltrate the Academy a full year in advance, disguised as Obelisk Blue students or staff, it wasn't exactly a stretch. Bastion, Chazz, and Zane had all landed on the same possibility almost the instant Atticus finished talking. Only deep down, Jaden, Syrus, and Zane still felt a small, stubborn resistance to accepting it, even as it started to feel more and more plausible.

"Anyway, let's head back and get some sleep first, then go find Professor Banner and lay everything out, see what he has to say."

Rowan glanced at the sky, already starting to lighten toward dawn, and let out a lazy yawn.

Another all-nighter spent dueling. And this time, they'd thoroughly wrecked that unlucky old bastard Titan on top of it. As far as Rowan was concerned, nothing mattered more right now than heading home for a good, satisfying sleep. Well, except maybe finding someone to warm the bed first...

Hearing this, the others nodded along, expressions still fairly grave. If Professor Banner really did turn out to be the last of the Seven Stars' Shadow Duelists, then confronting him properly could wait until after everyone had recovered their strength. There was no telling when another Shadow Duel might be forced on them.

Back in his lavishly appointed little cabin, Rowan headed straight to his room with the round Kuriboh perched on his shoulder, and quickly drifted off into a deep, satisfying sleep.

Alexis, meanwhile, stayed by her brother's side after his memories had just been restored, accompanying Atticus to the infirmary to have Nurse Fontaine check him over, just to make sure nothing else was wrong.

"Oh?"

While Rowan slept soundly back in his room, the vampire maid Camula, in the middle of grudgingly tackling her chores, suddenly froze. Something seemed to have caught her attention, and she turned toward the door leading out of the living room.

After a cautious glance toward the staircase leading up to the second-floor bedroom, Camula hesitated a moment, then carefully slipped out the door, heading toward a patch of tree shadows not far from the Obelisk Blue dormitory.

She'd just caught the sound of a Seven Stars dark faction summons call. Clearly, one of her old comrades from the dark faction was deliberately reaching out to her.

What Camula failed to notice was that the instant she stepped out the door, a ghostly figure of a female assassin cloaked entirely in black robes flickered into being in the living room, sensing something was off. She watched the direction Camula had gone, then quietly dissolved into a shadow and slipped out after her, trailing at a careful distance.

A short while later, Camula arrived at the patch of tree shadows near the Obelisk Blue dormitory. She glanced warily around herself and spoke up.

"Come out. I'm here."

"Camula."

Almost the instant she finished speaking, a figure emerged slowly from the tree shadows not far behind her, dressed in an ancient-style gray cloak that covered the head entirely, wearing a black mask beneath a wrap of white cloth.

"Are you the last Shadow Duelist among the Seven Stars?" Camula asked, frowning slightly at the sight.

She couldn't sense much of a human presence coming off this figure at all. And there was no trace of a Duel Spirit's aura either. It was, frankly, more than a little strange.

"Heh heh, that's right. I'm your last remaining comrade among the Seven Stars, and the greatest master of alchemy this century has ever seen."

The figure, swallowed entirely by the oversized gray cloak, its true appearance completely hidden, spoke to Camula with unwavering confidence.

"The greatest master of alchemy...?"

Camula murmured the words with mild surprise before getting straight to the point.

"So what exactly do you want from me? Coming out here like this is already putting me at considerable risk."

A flicker of resentful frustration crossed her face as she mentioned the risk. If that scheming little devil Rowan ever found out about this, there was no telling what kind of torment he'd cook up for her next. Being forced to sunbathe as a vampire who couldn't stand the sun had already been more than enough suffering as it was.

The only reason she'd come out here at all was in the hope that this last remaining Seven Stars Shadow Duelist, and whatever lay behind the entire dark faction, might finally offer her a way out of this miserable existence, a chance to escape from that infuriating brat once and for all.

"What I want from you is simple enough. I need you to steal the Spirit Key that Rowan currently holds, and bring it to me."

The gray-cloaked figure got straight to the point.

"But the Spirit Key only works to unlock the seven seals binding the Sacred Beasts after it's absorbed enough power through Shadow Duels," Camula said, raising an obvious concern. "Even if I managed to steal it and hand it over to you, it wouldn't do you much good, would it?"

"And stealing anything from that brat is no easy task to begin with."

She genuinely didn't believe she had much chance of pulling the pendant holding the Spirit Key off Rowan without him noticing. The risk was simply too great. If she failed and got caught, she might well end up sealed away in that terrifying dark card of his all over again.

As much as Camula truly wanted to escape from Rowan's clutches, she wasn't willing to gamble that heavily on a plan with such slim odds of success.