Chapter 197

Slurp... tch, ahh!

A short while later, Rowan sat in the living room, sprawled comfortably on the sofa like some feudal lord, sipping his tea with noisy satisfaction before letting out a contented sigh. He glanced over at Camula, sitting obediently nearby.

At the moment, she knelt on the carpet in a posture that looked remarkably like a formal apology, racking her brain frantically, trying to come up with some way to talk her way out of this. The round Kuriboh and the three miserable little Ojama brothers floated close by, one to her left and one to her right, keeping careful watch over her, armed with a miniature fishing rod and a tiny paintbrush, ready at a moment's notice to either scribble all over her face or drag her Shadow Card off to the little fish tank in the living room to keep company with the two goldfish.

"Come up with a good excuse yet?" Rowan asked casually, taking another sip of tea.

"I have one ready!" Camula blurted out reflexively, still lost in her own frantic scheming.

"..." The next instant, she caught up with what she'd just said and froze solid. Her face stiffened as she slowly lifted her head to look at Rowan, and the two of them sank into an awkward silence.

"..." Rowan stared back at her, sweating slightly himself.

Had she always been this scatterbrained? He genuinely couldn't remember noticing it before. Wasn't she supposed to be a scheming, deep-thinking vampire noblewoman playing the villain?

"I've got a pretty good idea of what motivated you to try stealing the Spirit Key."

Rowan set his teacup down and addressed Camula directly. He'd decided to lay his cards on the table with the vampire maid. Camula kept her head bowed, saying nothing.

"If your goal is reviving your fellow vampires, then I'm afraid even the power of the Sacred Beasts probably wouldn't be enough to make that happen."

The moment Rowan dropped that bombshell, Camula's expression shifted, staring at him in shock.

"What?! You mean even something as powerful as the Sacred Beasts might not be enough to bring my people back?!"

But a moment later, confusion crossed her face again. She hadn't told Rowan a single word about any of this. How could this scheming little devil possibly already know?

"You and that gray-cloaked man happened to be overheard by one of the spirits accompanying me," Rowan said, seeing straight through her confusion, spreading his hands.

"The Gravekeeper's Assailant!" Camula's teeth clenched as realization dawned on her.

She decided to throw caution to the wind entirely, turning to Rowan with open skepticism.

"I've used the dark power sealed within the Spell Card, The Gates of Dark World myself, and gotten a glimpse of the Sacred Beasts' power firsthand. I know exactly how overwhelming that power is."

"I simply don't believe you, that this power couldn't revive my people."

"Then here's the real question. If you wanted to revive your fellow vampires, what's the single most fundamental thing you'd need?"

Seeing her reluctance to believe him, Rowan pressed the point home with a decisive question straight to the soul.

Camula opened her mouth to answer immediately, then froze, something dawning on her slowly.

"...The souls of my kin?!"

"Correct."

Rowan snapped his fingers with a satisfied click.

In this dueling world, the realm of Duel Spirits contained several distinct pocket dimensions of its own. The Duel Spirits of the Dark World resided in a space called the Dark World, the Gravekeeper clan in their own separate realm, and factoring in the real world as well, there were quite a number of these spaces in total.

The most unique among them all was a place called the Underworld. That was where the souls of duelists of exceptional strength and will, or unique beings like the vampire clan, went after death, within the world of Duel Spirits. It was also where the Egyptian God Cards, and gods in the truest sense, resided.

"Based on what I know of the legends surrounding the Millennium Items, and what's been passed down from the era of the King of Games, Yugi Muto, only the power of true gods, like the Sacred Beasts, Slifer the Sky Dragon, and The Winged Dragon of Ra, would be capable of reaching into the Underworld and calling a soul back into this world."

Rowan laid the truth out plainly for her.

"It's not nearly as simple as traveling to some other corner of the Duel Spirit world."

"Which means it's very likely that whoever's behind the Seven Stars' dark faction has been deceiving you this whole time."

Rowan shook his head, watching the shock spread across Camula's face, shattering every last shred of her hope in an instant.

Though Camula's expression remained one of open disbelief, deep down, it was clear that some part of her had already started to accept it.

"Well, why don't you keep at your chores and think it over for a while. I've got some business to attend to."

Rowan said, rising from the sofa and waving a hand as he headed toward the door, without offering her anything more.

Camula stared, thoroughly dumbfounded, watching him deliver that gut-punch and then just casually walk off. She very much wanted to say something.

He was just... leaving? Just like that?

Wasn't this exactly the moment where, following the usual playbook, this scheming little devil should be telling her he carried the aura of divine power himself, that maybe he could pull off something similar down the road, sweeping in to win her over completely and secure her lasting loyalty? That would at least give her something to mull over, maybe even consider agreeing to.

But instead, this scheming little devil had simply walked away. Not even giving her the chance to use it as an excuse to think things over, or throw out a defiant remark about never giving in, just to vent some of the frustration she'd built up all this time.

This scheming little devil really didn't play by any of the usual rules at all.