Chapter 61

"Today we will be conducting another written theory examination to reassess dormitory rankings. All students are expected to answer thoroughly..."

Professor Crowler finished his announcement from the front of the lecture hall and distributed the test papers.

In the elevated back rows of the tiered classroom, Rowan sat comfortably half-slumped over his desk, wearing a sleeping mask with a pair of eyes painted on the front in careful detail.

From a distance, he looked like a very attentive student working through a difficult question.

From any closer distance, it became immediately apparent that he was asleep.

Alexis, sitting some rows away and actually working through her answers, glanced up at him and stifled a laugh.

She covered it by raising her hand to her mouth in a yawn she hadn't entirely manufactured, then went back to her paper.

Beside Rowan, Jaden and Syrus had both given up entirely on pretense.

Their heads were tilted back, pressed together at the crown, snoring in comfortable alternation.

The whole group was running on empty.

The Shadow Game ritual space had swallowed an entire night's worth of time.

What had felt like an hour or two inside had turned out to be the whole dark stretch until dawn, and now the consequences were presenting themselves in the form of three unconscious boys in a lecture hall and one sleeping student who had at least had the foresight to bring a prop.

As for the test score: Rowan was not particularly concerned. He had no ambitions toward Ra Yellow or Obelisk Blue.

A zero on a written exam was a zero on a written exam.

It changed nothing about the things that actually mattered.

Besides, his private cabin was nearly finished.

Transferring dorms now would be a loss.

At the front of the room, however, Professor Crowler was not taking the examination period as peacefully.

He kept glancing up from his desk, dark circles under his eyes, stealing looks at the back row where Rowan sat in his decorative sleeping mask.

The question gnawing at him was simple and had been gnawing since the early hours of the morning.

Had Titan destroyed the photo or not?

Crowler had waited until well past midnight before he couldn't stand it anymore and went to the abandoned dorm himself, as they'd agreed.

He'd found some footprints. No people. No sign of any destroyed camera.

No Titan either, and Titan had still not come to collect his fee.

Surely, Crowler thought, beginning to sweat again, a real Shadow Game couldn't have actually happened and swallowed the man I hired.

That's absurd. That's completely absurd.

He shook his head firmly and dismissed the thought.

The practical problem remained.

If the photo was still in Rowan's possession, Crowler needed to be very careful about what happened next and do whatever it took to keep last night's dormitory excursion quietly buried.

If the photo had been destroyed, he could afford to go on the offensive.

He weighed it back and forth, expression cycling through several varieties of anxious.

He didn't have to weigh it for long.

The exam period wound to a close, and Rowan woke up, apparently satisfied, at a small nudge from the Kuriboh.

He pulled off the painted sleeping mask and tucked it away.

Just in time to see several figures in the green security uniforms of Duel Academy step into the lecture hall.

"We have reason to believe several students entered the restricted abandoned dormitory last night," the lead officer announced.

"We've identified the individuals in question. The following students are to report to the principal's office immediately."

"There it is."

Rowan stifled a small yawn. He'd anticipated exactly this. He'd anticipated it before they'd even set foot in the dorm.

Alexis startled slightly, then looked at Rowan's complete lack of concern, and something in her shoulders settled.

Jaden and Syrus were less fortunate. They were physically lifted out of their chairs mid-snore, sputtering and confused, and escorted out before they fully understood what was happening.

Chumley, equally groggy, received no special treatment.

...

The principal's office was spacious.

Chancellor Sheppard sat behind his desk with his hands folded under his chin, expression carrying the particular strain of a man who would rather be anywhere else.

"This situation with you, Rowan, and Alexis, regarding the abandoned dormitory..." He sighed.

"It puts me in a very difficult position."

"By regulation, the appropriate response would be expulsion."

"Expul-what?!"

Jaden and Syrus both went rigid.

Crowler, who had followed them in, nodded vigorously from the side. Absolutely. Expulsion.

Correct call.

Rowan coughed once, reached up to adjust his collar as though he was slightly warm, and in doing so allowed the small camera in his pocket to become just barely visible above the fabric.

Crowler's face locked.

His eye twitched.

The cold sweat started immediately and did not stop.

Mamma mia.

No more deliberating.

The photo was still in the delinquent boy's hands. Unambiguously.

If Chancellor Sheppard followed through on expulsion right now, Vellian Crowler, chief practical examiner of Duel Academy, was going to be leaving right alongside them.