Chapter 222

"Not sure?"

Hearing Rowan's words, Camula froze for a moment.

But one look at his face, which looked nothing like that of someone genuinely unsure, told her everything. That devious brat was holding a grudge again...

The thought made her head throb.

She hurriedly offered, "If you help me revive my clan in the future, then I'll honestly stay on as your maid and follow you."

"You say that like you'd be free to quit being my maid if I refused," Rowan replied, still soaking in the spring, unable to resist a flat retort.

"..." Camula's face darkened at once. She badly wanted to snap back with something tough. If he wouldn't agree, she'd rather go back to being sealed inside that dark card, and she'd use that as a threat!

But before the words even reached her lips, she wilted, bowing to reality. Being sealed inside that card had been no picnic. And then there were those three smirking Ojama brothers, the Duel Spirits Rowan would send out to torment her for fun...

"If you promise to help revive my clan later, then what you get is a truly loyal, noble maid, the last of the vampire line! You could never get that through coercion!"

Camula wasn't ready to give up. She made one last stand, searching for any reason that might sway him.

"And then there wouldn't be a repeat of what happened before, when I tried to steal the Spirit Key. After all, by then our interests would be completely aligned!"

"Don't worry!"

Rowan nodded with perfect seriousness as he said those words, and Camula's heart leapt. The corners of her mouth curled up slightly. She thought the devious brat was finally going to agree!

Then she heard him continue.

"From now on, I'll have Big Sister Ishizu, the Gravekeeper's Assailant, watch you in secret around the clock. I won't give you the slightest chance to pull any little tricks!"

"???"

Camula nearly fell over again!

She turned to Rowan with black lines running down her forehead, her face as dark as a heap of coal.

There was a line lodged in her chest, begging to be said.

I may not be human, but you're the real monster!

"But if you scrub my back for a while right now, then once I've gotten my full power, I might just agree."

It was then that Rowan tossed out another casual line.

Camula blinked. She looked at him, still lounging against the edge of the indoor spring with that blissful expression, and suddenly found her opinion shifting a little.

This brat might be devious, but honestly, he wasn't half bad to get along with.

The only problem was...

If he was telling her to scrub his back, why wasn't he showing his back?

He was still leaning against the edge of the spring, and he hadn't given her a single chance to pick up a towel and start scrubbing!

...

"Today, I, Professor Crowler, the most knowledgeable teacher at Duel Academy, will be filling in for the ailing Professor Banner and teaching your Alchemy class."

Early the next morning, Rowan yawned, propped his chin on his hand, and "listened" to the lecture with lazy indifference.

With the Seven Stars incident finally put to rest, his easygoing little life had settled back into its usual peace and quiet.

As for the Sacred Beast cards, right after yesterday's duel with old man Kagemaru, bald Chancellor Sheppard had paid up in exchange for them and had them resealed on the spot.

And the aftermath of the Seven Stars incident had barely become a rumor among most of the ordinary students at Duel Academy.

Even the matter of Professor Banner, who had been reduced to a disembodied soul and ended up lodged in that lazy cat Pharaoh, had been covered by the school's upper ranks with a simple story that he was "hospitalized" with an illness.

They couldn't risk the existence of Shadow Duels sparking some kind of panic.

"Rowan, now that the Seven Stars incident is over, I..."

Just then, from a seat not far away, Alexis Rhodes suddenly spoke to him in a low, hesitant voice.

For today's class, her seat had somehow shifted all the way over to the spot right beside Rowan.

Even Chazz and the others had been forced, reluctantly, to move to seats farther back...

Of course, the reason Chazz and the others were so unwilling wasn't that they wanted to sit next to Rowan. It was that they couldn't shake the feeling that letting Alexis sit beside him was far too good a deal for a certain someone!

"The Seven Stars incident is over. Is there some other problem?"

Seeing the hesitation on Alexis's face, Rowan was taken aback for a moment, and he asked, puzzled, not quite catching on.

"No, nothing else is wrong..."

Seeing his reaction, Alexis seemed to think of something, and her cheeks flushed slightly as she changed her answer.

What she had originally meant to say was that, now that the crisis of the Seven Stars Duelists was over, she no longer had any reason to keep staying at Rowan's luxury cabin. She ought to go back to the Obelisk Blue girls' dorm.

But seeing that Rowan didn't seem to realize this at all, and had clearly grown used to having her around, Alexis changed her mind.

Yesterday, before they parted, her brother Atticus had told her something. Some things you have to reach out and fight for yourself.

She decided to defend her "territory" first!

After all, there was no telling when someone like that King Kong Barbie of a Seven Stars Duelist, Tania, might come barging in to fight her for him!

Especially since, in a little over a month, a batch of new students was supposedly going to be admitted. There was no telling how that would turn out...