Chapter 314: Kikawayu's Sense of Crisis
In Eden's Upper District, where every scrap of land was worth its weight in gold, there stood one especially conspicuous structure: an old Nordic style castle.
Maybe it was simply because the castle had always been there. Even though it clashed completely with the architectural style of everything around it, the people of Eden, who'd grown up seeing it their whole lives, never thought twice about how out of place it looked.
There were even rumors that the castle had stood there since the very founding of Eden itself, which made sense given that its owners, the Nidhogg family, were one of Eden's oldest bloodlines.
In the castle garden, a golden-haired young woman in a pure white gown sat with a ragdoll cat curled in her lap, petting it absently while she tilted her face up toward the sky.
But look closely, and though she held the posture of someone gazing up at the heavens, her eyes never actually opened.
Just then, an old man in a tailcoat strode into the garden, his steps carrying a hint of urgency, though he deliberately slowed his pace as he drew closer to the young woman.
"Miss Cinderella, the young master, the young master just lost his duel."
With her eyes shut the whole time, the change in the young woman's expression was barely visible, nothing more than the faintest parting of her rosy lips.
"A Riding Duel?"
"Yes."
"Who beat him? Some professional from a club? Or was it one of the Top Layer's digital immortals?"
The old man explained, clearly at a loss. "Neither. The one who beat the young master was, was a student."
"A student?"
"Yes. The same student who became the talk of all of Eden not long ago, after that broadcast duel got force-aired everywhere."
"A broadcast duel? I never watched that."
"This isn't really the time for jokes, Miss Cinderella."
"It doesn't matter who my husband lost to. The moment he was defeated, the contract became void. Help me up, Lobo."
"Yes, ma'am." The old man gently lifted the ragdoll cat off her lap, then reached out to help her rise with practiced care, handing her the guide cane that had been resting beside her chair.
Taking the cane, the young woman tapped it lightly against the ground. Even without her sight, nothing stood in the way of her walking straight and sure toward the garden's exit.
"The three polar gods carry the responsibility of guarding the world's peace. And starting today, the Nidhogg family will have to reconsider whether my husband still deserves to hold that duty."
The Emperor's crash ended up rolling three meters short of Rin Seiya's own distance, missing out on the Rollover Champion title by a hair.
Amano Rei had seen it clearly: the Emperor had actually been yanked clean off his D-Wheel by Eve's direct attack.
So they say the flatter the chest, the harder the grudge.
Rin Seiya: "Rollover Champion? That's not a title I ever wanted, thank you very much!"
With both Amano Rei and Rin Seiya taking their respective championships, the staging area should have been buzzing with celebration. Instead, the air had gone cold enough to freeze solid, and everyone was holding their breath, not daring to make a sound.
All because, on top of Kaiba Chiaki's presence, the Riding Duel staging area now had one more uninvited guest.
The Riding Emperor and Fiore stood locked in a silent stare-down.
A married man running into the ex-girlfriend he'd betrayed. It was the kind of scene that could easily rank in anyone's top ten most terrifying life moments. Even someone as dignified as CEO Kaiba Chiaki was quietly watching the drama unfold.
"Kai. Now that you've lost your duel, I think you can tell me."
One of the iron laws of a world built around dueling: lose a duel, and the truth comes out.
Fiore, her voice hard: "Tell me. Why weren't you there on the finals stage three years ago? The three of us worked so hard, wasn't all of it for that one moment? Why did you abandon your own teammates?"
Having had his helmet knocked clean off mid-duel by Shooting Star Dragon, the Emperor, still recovering from his crash, had his usually perfectly maintained, silky golden hair looking more than a little disheveled.
But more complicated than his messy hair was the look in the Emperor's eyes.
This was something he'd meant to keep buried forever. But there was no getting around it now. He'd lost, after all.
"It was because of a contract."
"A contract?"
"The team Riding Duel tournament three years ago, the Nidhogg family was the largest sponsor behind the scenes. That entire tournament existed, in truth, to find a Riding Duelist qualified to inherit the three polar gods."
"The night before the finals, the Nidhogg family came to me. They said they'd chosen me as the heir to the three polar gods, but that I'd have to leave my original team and marry into the Nidhogg family."
"So you just said yes?" Fiore said. "Chosen as heir to the three polar gods, and getting to marry a rich family's daughter on top of it. You must have been thrilled."
"Of course not. But the Nidhogg family, as the tournament's sponsor, threatened that if I refused, they'd disqualify our entire team from the finals. In the end, I had no choice. That's when I ended up in a Contract Duel with the Nidhogg family."
"This is the contract you meant?"
"Yes. If I'd won, I could have gone straight into the finals like normal."
"But you never showed up. Does that mean..."
"Yeah. I lost to Cinderella. Badly. I barely got a hand in edgewise."
"Cinderella?"
Kaiba Chiaki, still enjoying the show, stroked her chin as she thought back. "Cinderella. If I remember right, that's the name of this generation's only daughter of the Nidhogg family. So you're saying the Emperor lost to the very woman who's now his wife?"
Chiaki-senpai, you usually walk around with that whole aloof, above-it-all act going. Why are you suddenly this invested in the gossip, practically doing color commentary for the whole room?
"Found it, found it!" Finesse, whose appetite for gossip was every bit a match for Kaiba Chiaki's, had already pulled up search results for Cinderella online.
Even the reclusive only daughter of a famous, powerful family couldn't fully escape the modern age of the internet. If you were willing to dig, you could always turn up something, even if it was only rumor and gossip.
Looking at the photos of Cinderella pulled up from Eva's network, everyone gasped in unison. "She's gorgeous!"
A perfect example of the high-bridged nose and deep-set eyes typical of a Nordic beauty. Even in a photo some stranger had snapped by chance online, the golden-haired girl looked as stunning as a sculpture on display in an art museum.
Rin Seiya said, "The old Emperor really lucked out."
Amano Rei, meanwhile, noticed one particular phrase buried in the search results Finesse had pulled up: "blind in both eyes."
The explanation attached to it was a single simple line: blind since childhood, due to illness.
Amano Shio tilted her head, confused. "Can you even play cards if you can't see?"
If you could duel from a wheelchair, then surely being blind was just something you worked around, no big deal, right?
"Hahaha! Hahahahaha!"
Just as everyone was busy marveling over the Emperor's wife's looks and background, Fiore, now that she knew the truth, suddenly doubled over laughing, clutching her stomach.
She laughed without a shred of restraint, without a care in the world.
Even Fiona, her own little sister, hadn't seen her laugh like that in a long time.
"Is she okay?"
"I think she's fine." Amano Rei had seen his fair share of unhinged, over-the-top laughter before, but this clearly wasn't that.
Wiping away tears of laughter, Fiore slapped the Emperor hard on the shoulder. "So you got beaten up by a woman and dragged into marrying into her family? No wonder you didn't want to talk about it. That's exactly the kind of thing you'd be embarrassed about."
"Fiore..."
"So this is the truth I've been wanting to know all this time. Hearing a reason this pathetic, and picturing you living out your whole life under your wife's thumb. Whatever anger I had left, I think I can finally let it go."
"Fiore, you're still exactly the same. Still love making fun of me."
"Because you've been funny since we were kids."
Having finally reined in her laughter, Fiore worked to settle her expression back into its usual calm.
"Kai, tell me the truth. I know you only married into the family because you lost that duel, but the way things are now, do you actually love Cinderella?"
"Yeah." The Emperor nodded without a moment's hesitation. "However it started, there's no denying it now. I love my wife."
"I see." Something flickered in Fiore's eyes for a fraction of a second, barely noticeable at all, before she tilted her head back to look up at the ceiling.
"Yeah. That's enough. Knowing that is enough for me."
"Fiore, actually, I..."
"Kai, you don't need to say anything else. Let the past stay in the past. No compensation, no apology needed. Just let it go, that's all. I think that's the best ending for this."
With that, Fiore turned and walked away. But as she passed by Amano Rei, she left him with one last thing.
"Thank you, Amano. It was your hard-fought duel that gave me the chance to finally learn the truth. You're going to keep getting stronger, stronger than strongest itself. I can't wait to see that day."
Once Fiore left, the Emperor naturally had no reason to keep lingering in the staging area either.
But as he passed by Amano Rei too, he left one last thing behind.
"Amano Rei. Even I have to admit it, you won that beautifully. Your soul card is strong. A Synchro that doesn't even need a Tuner, it's practically a miracle conjured out of thin air. Someday, I think you'll inherit the name of Emperor from me."
What was going on with these two?
Stronger than strongest. Inheriting the name of Emperor. What was any of that supposed to mean?
None of that was why Amano Rei had fought in today's Riding Duel.
He'd been fighting so he wouldn't have to marry into someone's family, that was all.
If anything, after hearing the Emperor's whole story, Amano Rei found himself relating a little too much.
If he'd lost to Celestia in today's duel, wouldn't he have ended up following the exact same script as the Emperor, forced by a contract to marry into the tomb-keeper clan?
And after being thoroughly conquered by Big Thunder's tender embrace, he'd end up saying it too: however it started, I love my wife Celestia.
Watching Fiore and the Emperor leave one after the other, Saotome Rei couldn't help but sigh. "Reality really is nothing like a fairy tale romance, huh. Even childhood sweethearts might not end up together in the end."
The words were spoken without any particular thought behind them, but the listener took them to heart. Kikawayu's body went rigid for a moment, and where no one else could see, fingernails quietly dug into the flesh of a clenched palm.
The award ceremony for the New Riding Duel Invitational that followed was little more than a formality. The trophies for Riding Champion and Rollover Champion went into Amano Rei's and Rin Seiya's hands respectively.
What surprised Amano Rei was that the championship prize came to a full 800,000 points. And this had only been a tournament that lasted half a day.
Dueling really did hold an outsized status in Eden. Professional duelists could clearly rake it in.
The 800,000 in prize money, plus the 1,000,000 he'd received from Celestia's remaining savings, plus whatever balance he'd already had. Between all of it, Amano Rei had, through his own hard work, scraped together a small fortune of two million points.
Two million was still nowhere near enough for a genuinely powerful, rare Forbidden card. But for something like Monster Reborn, worth 600,000 a copy, Amano Rei could actually afford to run three of them in his deck, same as Celestia.
Once the tournament had officially wrapped up, Amano Rei didn't head back to the villa to rest. Instead, keeping his promise to Kaiba Chiaki, he made his way to the president's office at Kaiba Corporation.
To get Kaiba Corp to step in and save Celestia, Amano Rei had promised Kaiba Chiaki he'd do anything she asked in return.
"Chiaki-senpai, does whatever this is really need to happen here?"
Standing in the president's office, Amano Rei ran the numbers in his head, trying to guess exactly what Chiaki was about to ask of him.
"Chiaki-senpai, let's get this straight up front. When I said I'd do anything, that's on the condition it's something I'm actually capable of, and something that doesn't cross any moral lines."
Kaiba Chiaki gave a cold smile. "Oh? So which am I, immoral or bottomless?"
"I'm just, you know, giving you a friendly heads-up."
"We'll set aside what you owe me for now. There's something I'd rather ask you first."
Kaiba Chiaki propped her elbows on the desk, the same desk that had already taken a double strike worth 3000 points off her mood earlier that day.
"Is your god card any good?"
"Well of course it's good, I mean..."
A beat too slow, Amano Rei finally realized what was behind Kaiba Chiaki's inexplicably prickly mood toward him all day.
Kaiba Chiaki's expression sat somewhere between a smile and something else entirely. "You kept it from me, didn't you, Amano Rei. You got your god card the moment you stepped out of the Chronicle this week, and you never said a word to me about it."
"Sorry, Chiaki-senpai."
"I want to know. Am I really not worth your trust?"
"At the time I just figured there wasn't really a need to mention it."
"If it had been anyone else standing there, would you have stayed quiet the same way?"
"No."
Amano Rei genuinely wasn't the type to go around showing off.
"Really?" Kaiba Chiaki sounded skeptical.
"Really. Honestly, it's just that after living down in the lower districts for so long, I picked up the habit of quietly hiding anything good before anyone else could see it. You can never fully let your guard down around people. Not that I'm saying I need to guard myself around you specifically, senpai."
"Fine. Let's just say that's how it is."
Amano Rei suddenly playing the hard life in the lower districts card, a shamelessly sympathy-baiting move if there ever was one, left even Kaiba Chiaki with no good way to keep venting her frustration on him.
"Let's talk about what you promised me."
"Sure, go ahead."
"In a week, I'll be leading Kaiba Corporation's exterior exploration team out to bring the exiled Celestia back."
"And to avoid wasting any of our precious resources, every exterior expedition needs to stay out there for at least a full month, at minimum."
"Before that, I want you to help me patch things up with Chiha."
"???"
Kaiba Chiha, again? Seriously?
Was he supposed to be some kind of guardian for her and the little brat? Every single time the two sisters had a falling out, somehow he got dragged into it.
Fine, he'd already gone and brought the little brat back from District 32. But now she was safely back in the Middle District, and he still had to worry about her?
"You're close with that girl, Yui, aren't you."
"Yeah. Old friend."
"Right now Chiha basically won't leave her room. According to the housekeeper, the only person who can get her to open the door at all is Yui. I really don't want to admit it, but as far as being a big sister goes, Yui's probably better at it than I am."
That was practically unprecedented. The proud president of Kaiba Corp, actually admitting one of her own shortcomings.
"Then shouldn't this be something you ask Yui for, not me?"
Honestly, Yui was easy to handle. Just slip her enough money, and by the time she was done getting dizzy counting it, she'd be following orders like she'd been hypnotized.
"I might admit it, but that doesn't mean I'm bowing my head over it! If I went and asked her myself, it'd be like admitting defeat as Chiha's own older sister!"
Seiya-senpai really had a good read on people. Kaiba Chiaki genuinely was a twisted, severe case of a little-sister complex.
"I'll think about it."
"Fine, go ahead and think. However long you take thinking about it, I'll leave Celestia out there that much longer."
"Okay, okay, fine! I'll say yes right now, is that good enough for you?"
Kaiba Chiaki flashed Amano Rei a smile that read plainly as: smart choice.
"One more thing. Now that you have a god card, how would you rate your odds of beating the Atem AI at this point?"
Amano Rei had almost managed to forget what his actual job at Kaiba Corporation even was.
Beating the Atem AI would unlock confidential material Kaiba Corp had left behind three thousand years ago.
But after dueling the real Pharaoh inside the Chronicle, Amano Rei had come to feel the gap between them all the more sharply. Even if the AI's version of the Pharaoh was weaker than the true Pharaoh from the underworld, it still wasn't something he could handle alone, not yet.
"Maybe once I get back from outside the Tower, I'll be able to beat him." Amano Rei said.
"What do you mean by that?"
"My secret weapon, obviously. The timing just isn't right yet. When it is, I'll show you, senpai."
His secret weapon, Mizuki-chan. By the time he got back from a month outside the Tower, the trade cooldown on that card of hers, the one with the head like some dark archmage, would be up right on schedule.
"Fine. I hope you're worth every point of that salary."
"Don't worry, Chiaki-senpai. I'll make sure you learn firsthand: the only flaw expensive things ever have is being expensive."
After leaving Kaiba Corporation, Amano Rei got back to the villa and found Shio and Saotome Rei squeezed together on the living room couch, watching TV.
Shio spoke up. "Big brother, Kikawayu seemed to be in a really bad mood after he got back today. Shouldn't you go check on him?"
Saotome Rei thought back. "Was it something I said wrong earlier, about how childhood friends might not end up together? Does that mean Kikawayu-senpai has feelings for his own childhood friend, big sis Yui?"
The kid had good instincts. Someone really should tell her to stop guessing.
Still, he supposed he should check in on his good friend, at least a little.
Amano Rei walked to Kikawayu's door and knocked lightly.
"Kikawayu, are you asleep?"
No answer. Probably asleep, then.
And then Amano Rei suddenly remembered that even if Kikawayu wasn't asleep, he probably wouldn't let him into the room anyway. Not that Amano Rei particularly wanted to walk into that kind of room to begin with.
Amano Rei yawned.
Whatever. Time for him to turn in too.
Tomorrow was Monday already. Classes, Chronicle duels on top of that, and now he had to figure out how to patch things up between the Kaiba sisters too.
He really was busy, wasn't he.
When Amano Rei got back to his own room on the third floor and pushed the door open, he found Kikawayu sitting on his bed, looking completely at ease, nothing about him suggesting a bad mood at all.
"Yo, welcome back." Kikawayu greeted him.
"What do you mean, 'yo, welcome back'?" Amano Rei said, exasperated. "You're acting like this is your territory. This is my room, remember!"
Kikawayu's eyes crinkled into thin, smiling crescents. "Same thing. Remember to lock the door."
"Why would I lock it? And I'm about to go to sleep, so hurry up and get out..."
Kikawayu's smile faded. The eyes that had been crinkled shut in laughter slowly opened, revealing heterochromatic irises that never normally showed themselves, cold and sharp in this one moment.
"I told you to lock the door. Didn't you hear me?"
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