Returning to her dorm, Alicia had originally planned to leap straight onto the soft bed and fall asleep.
However, under Yuui's constant nagging, the girl had no choice but to take another shower, brush her teeth, and wash her face properly before finally lying down on the bed, feeling a bit tired.
"Yuui-san, good night!"
"Mm, good night, Alicia!"
After exchanging goodnights, the girl, exhausted from two duels in one day, in no time drifted into a deep sleep.
As for Yuui, being a spirit, he continued to float beside her, watching the sleeping girl's peaceful face, occasionally helping her pull the blanket back up when she kicked it off.
Watching her little mouth move now and then, Yuui smiled helplessly. Perhaps she was dreaming about something delicious again.
Yuui slowly floated to the window, gazing at the bright moon hanging in the night sky, and murmured softly, "Eight years already, huh."
…
Yuui's full name was Albaz Yuui¹. "Albaz" was the true name of the Duel Monster he had become, while "Yuui" was his real name.
Thousands of years ago, in another world… he had merely been an ordinary boy who loved dueling and dreamed of becoming a new type of professional: a Card Maker.
In that world, Duel Monsters were originally nothing more than creatures from anime and manga. Though countless card illustrations told stories about the history of Duel Monsters, to the people of that world, they were simply a tabletop card game.
Albeit one day, a man named Kyu Jun truly summoned a Duel Monster Spirit and even created the "Duel Disk" that had only ever existed in anime and manga. From that moment, dueling replaced online gaming and swept across the world like wildfire.
As time went on and nations across the globe further developed the once-fictional game of "dueling," by the era in which Yuui lived, dueling had already replaced real warfare, becoming the means through which all conflicts were decided.
Human technology advanced at lightning speed, all in service of developing dueling further. Humanity even ventured into outer space to create new cards and develop new dueling technologies.
In the truest sense, humanity's evolution toward a brighter future had been achieved through dueling.
Yuui, then just an ordinary person, watched this ever-changing world and believed that such a peaceful and beautiful life would continue forever.
Nevertheless, one day, everything changed. Carrying his small backpack, his Deck, and an album containing a full thousand cards, he went out to buy the newest Duel Card pack. On his way home, eager to open it, he rushed across the street—and was struck by a speeding dump truck. That moment changed his fate forever.
He thought his life would end there. Although in his fading consciousness, he saw that man—Kyu Jun.
The man looked at his broken body and shook his head before speaking softly: "You're both lucky and unlucky. I was just about to find someone to help me with something troublesome, and it seems time is almost up.
"Given your current condition, I can give you a new life. Whether you can return to this world again… that depends on you.
"If you agree, blink. If you don't..."
As Yuui felt his life slipping away, he no longer had the strength to think. Using the last of his energy, he blinked to signal agreement.
Seeing this, Kyu Jun nodded, took a card from his pocket, and placed it upon Yuui's broken body.
Yuui didn't remember what happened next, for his physical body in that world had already died.
When he next awoke, he found himself in a new world—and had become the Duel Monster Spirit of his own Deck's ace card, Fallen of Albaz.
Fortunately, the "Albaz" he became still bore his original appearance… he wasn't dark-skinned, and he was still quite handsome.
Thus, completely unfamiliar with this new world, he began to wander.
At that time, the world wasn't inhabited by modern humans, but by Duel Monster Spirits… or rather, those spirits were once the original inhabitants: humans and creatures that had lived in that world long ago.
Back then, the so-called "Elemental HEROES" were warriors within cities who wielded the powers of various elements to defeat evil. The "Magicians" were humans and other beings who had mastered the study of magic.
The oceans were home to the merfolk and sea dragons; beneath the earth lived subterranean tribes; in the mountains dwelled dragons and bird clans; on the plains lived beasts and beastmen.
In that age, countless races coexisted in a highly advanced civilization. The beings of that world wielded tremendous power, and the land then was a single great continent, not the four divided ones that exist now.
Abruptly, then, a catastrophic war engulfed the entire world, eventually splitting the continent into four. Nearly all living creatures perished in that age, paving the way for the rise of modern humanity.
Yuui didn't know what caused that war, for it happened after he was sealed within a "Spirit Tablet."
Before being sealed, he had been quite powerful. As the Duel Monster Spirit of Fallen of Albaz, the core of his Deck, he was perhaps the first Duel Monster Spirit to ever exist.
Thus, he could wield all the forms of "Albaz" within his Deck, and even summon the other monsters from both his Deck and his thousand-card album to aid him in battle.
In that era, with his own strength alone, he became a dominant force, holding territory on the edge of the continent.
Though he preferred wandering and seeing the world's wonders, that land was still his domain.
One day, as a true card fanatic, he could no longer suppress the urge to duel and began wondering if he could create Duel Cards himself.
Once the idea took root in his mind, it spread like wild grass, consuming him completely.
And so began his long research into the art of making Duel Cards.
If it were just ordinary, powerless cards, anyone could make them.
But Yuui wanted more—he wanted to create real cards, ones that possessed the true power of spirits, just like in his original world.
Thus began his long years of research.
Research was tedious. Though he had once been an amateur card maker and knew some basic methods and principles, lacking proper tools in this world made progress painfully slow.
After fifty years of tireless study, he finally left his castle, carrying the first card he had ever made, and set out to wander the world once again in search of inspiration.
But precisely because of that, he encountered a turning point in his life.
Not long after setting out again on his wandering journey, Yuui ran into two cloaked figures in a desolate area near the edge of his domain.
The two cloaked figures seemed surprised to see each other, but their target was the same… Yuui. Thus, a battle between the three of them began.
Their fight was one of the greatest clashes of power in that era. Countless mountains were devastated by the shockwaves of their battle, and countless lakes were buried beneath their unleashed force.
Fortunately, their battleground lay at the edge of the continent; otherwise, who knew how many lives would have been lost in the crossfire.
That battle lasted a full ten years. During those ten years, Yuui, using his own magic power and without a Duel Disk, materialized every card in his body that lacked a residing Duel Spirit to fight.
The Albaz series, the HERO series, the Synchro series, the Duel Dragon series, the Number series, the Dark Magician series, the Blue-Eyes series, the Red-Eyes series, the Egyptian God series, the Sacred Beast series, the Kaiju series...
Thousands of cards—representing nearly all the mainstream monsters in Yu-Gi-Oh! history.
Yet despite it all, Yuui was ultimately defeated by the two cloaked figures working together. Their combined power turned him into a Spirit Tablet—perhaps the very first one in this world.
His consciousness faded into darkness, and the tablet that sealed him drifted through the world for thousands of years.
Until eight years ago, when Alicia, beaten bloody and on the verge of death after stealing food to escape a shopkeeper's wrath, stumbled upon that tablet by a small river.
As one drop of her blood fell upon the tablet, Yuui's seal was undone. After thousands of years, he finally returned to the mortal world.
He drove away the shopkeeper and saved Alicia.
After learning about the state of the current era—and realizing that his long imprisonment had left him without a physical body—he chose to become Alicia's spirit.
However, upon his release, Yuui discovered something shocking: not only had he lost his body, but all of the Duel Cards once within him were gone. Even his Deck built around the Albaz series was reduced to a single card… the Fallen of Albaz, the foundation of his existence.
His Fusion forms had vanished entirely. As for the other series, not a single card remained… not even Ash Blossom.
As he learned more about the thousands of years that had passed since his sealing and about the world's modern history, he discovered something terrifying.
He—Albaz Yuui—or rather, the name "Albaz"—had become recorded in human history as the greatest criminal of all time.
What he read stated: "Albaz may not have been the strongest Shadow Duelist in history, but he was unquestionably the one who inflicted the greatest harm upon human civilization."
Ever since the invention of Duel Cards that changed history itself, the name "Albaz" had been branded with the title of "the most evil person in history."
He was said to have stolen countless rare cards and Duel Monster Spirits, destroyed cities, massacred civilians, caused the deaths of tens of thousands of duelists, and annihilated three entire kingdoms.
In fact, the current powers ruling the Three Continents were said to have risen from the ashes of the realms he destroyed.
And this villain, this embodiment of pure evil… was called "Albaz."
His Deck was said to be none other than Yuui's own… built around the monster Fallen of Albaz.
When Yuui saw all this written in a children's history book used for lessons at a local church, he was utterly stunned.
Yuui: "What!!!? I became the most evil duelist in human history? I destroyed three kingdoms and killed countless people!? Why don't I know anything about this!? Which bastard went and did all that under my name!!?"
After learning this, Yuui was so shaken that he went silent for three whole days. Fortunately, he no longer needed to eat, or he might have starved to death.
Eventually, the young Alicia encouraged him—telling him to reclaim what had been stolen and clear his name. Only then did Yuui regain his spirit and courage to move forward.
To be honest, although his cards had been taken, they had once been part of his very being. And since he was somewhat of a card maker himself, as long as he accumulated enough magic power, he could one day recreate those lost cards.
Even so, having just been released from his seal, he was only slightly stronger than an ordinary spirit.
So he could only gather magic power little by little to restore his strength. As for crafting cards—a process that consumed vast amounts of magical energy—that would have to wait.
From that moment on, for the next eight years, he lived side by side with Alicia.
Over those eight years, Yuui found every possible way to sustain Alicia's life, while Alicia placed her absolute trust in him—even allowing this mysterious man to inhabit her body.
The two struggled to survive until one day, in a small rural town, they met a nun who managed the local church.
From then on, their lives improved slightly.
With the nun's help, they gradually gathered the funds needed for admission and collected the forty cards required for enrollment.
To do so, the two of them did all kinds of work—underground duels, wilderness survival, odd jobs, scavenging scrap, washing dishes—any dirty or exhausting labor they could find.
Thankfully, Yuui's dueling skills were truly excellent. Once they finally assembled a forty-card Deck—barely more than a random pile of cards—their lives improved significantly through underground duels. Alicia's malnourished body even began to grow stronger.
And now, at last, they had become students of Saint Fusion Academy, stepping into a promising new future.
As for what the future might hold, Yuui didn't know.
Regardless, right now, his only wish was for Alicia to live well.
As for how he would clear his name and reclaim his lost power… that would have to be discovered one step at a time.
…
...
If you want to support, please consider Patreon, and read advanced chapters! Your support keeps this series going!
[Patreon.com/RedZTL]