Chapter 77 77: My Shadow Heroes Are Starving for Battle!

Out of consideration for Alexis's thin skin, Rowan quietly cleared his throat and said nothing.

Well. It was only half a bottle of oolong tea.

He'd take the loss.

...

"By the way, the duel with Jaden is tomorrow morning. Is your new deck ready?"

Alexis had surfaced from her own thoughts and turned to him with the question.

Jasmine and Mindy, seated on the picnic cloth beside her, both nodded along and looked at him curiously.

"Right, and though the representative duel between Duel Academy and North Academy doesn't actually mean all that much in the grand scheme of things..."

"You still wouldn't want to lose to Jaden tomorrow, would you?"

The two of them traded off lines with practiced ease.

Being second-years at Duel Academy, they clearly already knew that Chancellor Sheppard's so-called "mystery prize" was more or less a running gag at this point.

"The deck? It's been ready for a while now."

Rowan finished the last piece of sushi from his extravagant bento, set it aside, and settled back into the reclining chair with his eyes half-closed, giving a small, lazy nod.

"Already ready?"

Alexis blinked. She hadn't expected him to have put a deck together so quickly.

That made her curious.

What exactly had he prepared?

A thought seemed to occur to her, and her expression shifted into something between wariness and resignation.

"This new deck of yours... it's not some unholy fusion of the Lava Golem lockdown and yesterday's Stealth Bird strategy, is it? Like, the worst of both combined into something even more unbearable?"

Jasmine and Mindy both shuddered at the suggestion, reflexively huddling closer together and staring at Rowan as though he'd just transformed into something deeply threatening.

"You'll find out tomorrow when the duel starts." Rowan waved a hand without moving from his reclined position.

The meal had rendered him completely content and completely unwilling to exert himself.

His thinking was simple.

Against a hero-type duelist, you deployed an anti-hero strategy.

He hadn't managed to find any good opportunities today to farm some Emotion Points and grind toward redeeming Syrus's Vehicroid deck on the side.

But now that this whole representative duel situation had appeared, and he had a duel against that hot-blooded idiot Jaden Yuki scheduled for tomorrow morning, the deck he'd been eyeing was already decided.

As for Syrus's Vehicroid deck...

He'd missed the window. That was that.

It wasn't like the Red Dragon Seal skill from before, which had been genuinely essential for blocking Shadow Game damage.

The Vehicroid deck wasn't a necessity.

And compared to running around looking for more people to duel for Emotion Points, eating well and dozing in the sun felt considerably more important right now.

Of course, if Alexis and her two companions were willing to let him farm a little despair and squeeze in a quick duel, he'd have been happy to make the effort.

But these three had clearly wised up.

The looks on their faces made it plain that none of them had any intention of dueling him again.

Not after everything they'd already seen.

Rowan could only sigh inwardly at the tragedy of it all.

He just wanted to spread a little joy. A little love. And even that was this difficult.

...

"Hmph. So secretive about it..." Alexis watched him with his sealed-off expression and let out a soft, dissatisfied sound.

She'd only been trying to show a little concern for this infuriating person.

If there was anything he needed help with, any cards he was considering adding to the deck, she could probably suggest something useful.

Her knowledge of Duel Monsters was nothing to dismiss.

But she hadn't gotten a single thing out of him.

Still, she couldn't deny that his deliberate vagueness had managed to hook her curiosity, and Jasmine and Mindy's as well.

What kind of deck was he going to bring out against Jaden of all people?

If he was working with cards from the three decks he'd already shown, it might not be as straightforward as it seemed.

Jaden had already demonstrated he could beat Professor Crowler, and had pushed through the Paradox Brothers duel even dragging Syrus along as dead weight.

That kind of duelist, once he understood what he was up against, could adapt.

...

Lunch ended.

The afternoon sun did its slow work.

Eventually, all three girls received a message on their academy communicators from Ms. Ayukawa, the Obelisk Blue girls' dormitory supervisor, and headed back with some matter to attend to.

Rowan stayed behind on the rooftop with the round Kuriboh, the two of them continuing to soak in the warmth until it had done its job.

Then he yawned, packed up, and made his way back down to the Slifer Red dorm.

Before returning to his room, he stopped to check on the progress of the luxury cabin being constructed beside the Slifer dorm.

A satisfied look crossed his face.

At this rate, it would be finished in just a few more days.

He went back to his room.

The moment he stepped inside, he caught muffled sounds drifting through the wall from next door.

"Big bro, you have to win tomorrow against Rowan! For the sake of my traumatic experience of being wiped out three turns in a row!"

Syrus's voice, thoroughly aggrieved and pitiful, pushed through the wall in what appeared to be a rousing pep talk.

The voice of a victim who had personally received Rowan's brand of "joy."

"Yeah! My deck's gone through a bunch of changes since last time, and I spent the whole afternoon working on it. I think it's finally where I want it!"

Jaden's voice followed immediately, buzzing with excitement.

"This time, it's going to be an incredible duel with Rowan!"

Rowan looked down at the deck already waiting in his hand, freshly redeemed from the system.

"I genuinely hope that hot-blooded idiot still feels that way tomorrow," he said, with complete sincerity.

His anti-hero deck had been waiting long enough.