boyutpedia Chapter 489 - 489: DSMW [489]
Chapter 489 - 489: DSMW [489]
"I did it, Miles!"Holding the card, Princess Nova ran back excitedly and flashed a V-sign at Miles.
This was the first time Nova had ever scored a perfect 10 in an academy summoning class, so it was only natural for her to be this happy.
However, in the eyes of most first-year students, the standard for evaluating summoned monsters was still primarily based on Attack.
Only a very small number of people understood the true value of this 500 Attack Chamber Dragonmaid and its precise searching ability—among them, of course, Professor Field, who had decisively awarded the full 10 points.
"You did great, Nova," Miles praised her without reservation. "[Chamber Dragonmaid] is an excellent card!"
"Hehe." Nova accepted the praise without any modesty. "It really is different whenever you're around, Miles. With my knight present, even my summoning feels more confident!"
Did Nova's successful summon really have anything to do with him?
Miles couldn't say for sure with this kind of metaphysical matter.
Perhaps that Shadow Game with Luca had left a shadow on Nova, causing her to subconsciously feel that only when Miles was guarding her did she dare to summon with peace of mind.
After Princess Nova finished her summoning, the remaining first-year students' summons once again reverted to the disaster scene of mutual Axe Raider trades.
Although these were summons of monsters that could hardly be called combat-capable, these Duelists, who had only enrolled two months ago, all seemed to be enjoying themselves greatly, secretly comparing the strength of the monsters each had summoned.
The method of comparison was also very simple: whose summoned monster had higher Attack.
They would boast to friends if their monster's Attack was 100 points higher, and fall into frustration if it was lower.
On this point, Miles actually didn't think there was anything wrong with it.
The earliest Yu-Gi-Oh! players had obtained the purest form of joy through exactly this kind of comparison.
Only afterward did Yu-Gi-Oh! cards go on to sweep the world and develop at breakneck speed.
Who says comparing numbers isn't a valid way to play a card game? Card games are not so inconvenient a thing.
Quietly waiting for his own student ID—ranked last—to be called, a sudden standing figure caught Miles' attention.
"Student Liam Carl."
That was the name Professor Field called out.
The boy who stood up was the handsome 'normie' that Nova had pointed out the day before—the most popular guy in the class.
Brown hair and black eyes, his bangs slicked back with what was probably hair gel. Although the hairstyle looked cool, it didn't exactly look like a strong man's cut.
For some reason—perhaps just imagination—this boy named Liam Carl seemed to glance at Miles before stepping into the summoning array.
"It's finally Lord Liam's turn!"
Sitting in the row behind Miles and Nova, the two girls who had been discussing skirts and cosmetics earlier suddenly changed topics, focusing all their attention on Liam as he took the stage.
"As handsome as ever, Lord Liam!"
Hearing that honorific, Miles guessed that this handsome 'normie,' much like Kevin back then, probably had a fan club operating behind the scenes.
However, Kevin was the son of Duke Seth, from a family second only to the Kaiser royal family—being admired was only natural.
So what kind of background did this Liam have?
Just from the fact that he had glanced at him earlier, Miles found himself intrigued.
After all, once Duelists' eyes meet, things tend to spiral out of control.
"Nova, what family is this Carl from?"
"I don't know," Nova answered decisively, without the slightest pause.
The worldly-inexperienced little princess seemed quite uninterested in her classmates' family backgrounds.
After all, no matter what family you came from, none of them were as awesome as the Kaisers—that sort of composure.
But before asking Nova, Miles had already roughly guessed her answer, which was why he deliberately raised his voice while asking.
"Huh, Miles, you actually don't know the Carl family?"
Sure enough, the two girls in the back row had heard his question and took the bait.
"The Carl family has been the most high-profile count family in recent times!"
"Oh, a count."
Although Miles wasn't particularly familiar with Livorden's unique nobility system, he still had a basic grasp of it.
At the top were dukes, followed closely by marquises, and then came counts.
Miles also vaguely remembered that those who earned the title of Royal Duel Knight were effectively granted the rank of count.
Seen that way, a count didn't seem all that impressive—at least nowhere near the Seth family.
It was even inferior to the Barrett marquis family, whom he had once beaten soundly in the royal capital for harassing Alice.
Seeing Miles' overly flat reaction, the two fangirls seemed dissatisfied and continued elaborating.
"Don't be fooled by the fact that the Carl family is only a count right now. After the Barrett family suffered that accident, Livorden's marquis seat has been vacant for a long time. And the Carl family is currently one of the two strongest contenders for that marquis position."
The Marquis Barrett family—during the royal capital incident, both the current family head and his only son, Villy, had been harmed.
With both the family head and heir rendered incapable, it was a devastating blow to the family, and its fall was only natural.
As for the culprit behind the Barrett family's downfall, although the kingdom had been investigating, no concrete leads had been found. For now, it could only be attributed to the Empire Marshal Locke Slint as the principal offender.
"A marquis?"
On the verge of promotion to marquis—this meant that Liam Carl currently held the highest status among Fusion Academy's first-year students, making him the center of attention.
At the same time, Miles could understand why Liam would occasionally strike up conversations with Nova. If he could build a good relationship with the Kaiser royal family, his chances of becoming a marquis would improve dramatically.
Unfortunately for him, Princess Nova hadn't even remembered his name.
"That does sound pretty impressive."
A downright flat, deadpan response.
This reaction thoroughly ignited the competitive spirit of the two fangirls behind him.
In their eyes, Miles, a commoner, unquestionably didn't understand matters of family status at all.
So they switched angles.
"Lord Liam isn't just impressive because of his family! As Fusion Academy's rising star this year, many people say that Liam Carl's talent in Duels might even surpass that of Kevin Seth, who was also a first-year last year."
That actually piqued Miles' interest a little.
Surpassing Kevin's dueling talent—if Fusion Academy had rumors like that, they likely weren't baseless.
Turning his gaze to the summoning array, Liam had already completed the mana infusion into his Spirit Eyes.
"O martial god of steel and stone, cast down your blade and answer my call! Monster Summon!"
The summoning mana condensed, and the monster's form appeared before Liam.
[Beta The Magnet Warrior]
A Normal Monster with 1700 Attack. Although it was a vanilla monster, it had successfully broken the previous record of 1200 Attack held by Bella's [Silver Fang].
A summon like this, among first-year students who mostly focused on Attack power, undoubtedly caused a huge stir.
"As expected of Lord Liam! Amazing!" The two girls behind him were naturally ecstatic.
"To casually summon such a hard-hitting monster in a weekly class… truly worthy of being a rising star!"
"It's hard to imagine what he'll be able to summon during the midterm exams."
This round of painfully forced praise left Miles speechless.
"So this is the dueling talent that surpasses Kevin…"
Back when he was a first-year, Kevin's summons had also mainly been Normal Monsters.
Even so, if Miles remembered correctly, during that midterm battle, Kevin had already brought out an 1800 Attack [Dunames Dark Witch].
Still, as Normal Monsters, Magnet Warriors had hidden functions, so it wasn't possible to definitively judge which was superior.
That said, regardless, after completing this summon, Liam Carl was all drowned in praise from those around him and seemed to think he was hot stuff.
The guy actually took the card he had just summoned and walked straight over to Nova.
"Your Highness Nova, what do you think of my summon this time?"
Wearing an expression that was evidently fishing for praise, Liam instead received Nova's dismissive reply.
"It's very ordinary."
Princess Nova's extremely fair assessment—it really was very ordinary. If Miles were to judge it, it was nowhere near as good as Chamber Dragonmaid.
Watching Liam's face, which just a moment ago had been full of anticipation, instantly twitch and contort in embarrassment, the sheer clownery of it all made Miles struggle to hold back his laughter.
"Student Miles."
Noticing Miles' suppressed amusement, the awkward Liam seemed to be looking for face somewhere else.
"To be on such good terms with Princess Nova, your summon must surely be even more impressive."
"Who knows," Miles shrugged indifferently, hearing the sarcasm in his tone. "This is my first summoning class, after all."
This was a lie.
Liam continued, "You should understand that the Kaiser royal family is an existence of the highest nobility. I do not wish for someone without status or strength to influence Her Highness' academy life."
If the previous line could still be considered veiled sarcasm, then this statement was outright provocation; directly targeting Miles, a commoner Duelist with no family background.
"What are you talking about? Miles is—"
"It's fine, Nova."
Stopping the Nova who was about to explode, Miles instead followed along with Liam's line of reasoning.
"What Liam says actually makes a lot of sense. After all, this is a Duel Academy. Of course, everything should be decided by dueling strength."
The way to make one's life pleasant is not to argue with clowns.
Miles' response—basically a polite 'yeah, sure, whatever you say'—left Liam with no way to continue.
"Hmph. I hope it turns out the way you say it will!"
Leaving those final words behind, Liam turned and returned to his seat.
This sudden burst of drama left the first-year students thoroughly entertained.
Over the past few days, Miles' excessive closeness with Princess Nova had already made him the center of attention.
Those jealousy-burning adolescent boys had originally wanted to see this commoner Duelist embarrass himself in front of the little princess during the summoning class.
And now, before Miles even summoned anything, he had already clashed with Liam Carl—the person most eager to curry favor with Nova.
And this was after Liam had summoned a 1700 Attack monster.
The first-year gossip had suddenly become extremely juicy.
Given the speed at which rumors spread at Fusion Academy, the other grades would probably all know about this by tomorrow.
Was Miles nervous? Not at all.
This was nothing. He was so relaxed that he could even continue chatting casually with the two girls behind him.
"By the way, you mentioned earlier that the Carl family is one of the two strongest contenders for the marquis title. So which family is the other one?"
"The Carlos family. Ever since Aisha Carlos became a Royal Duel Knight, the Carlos family's status has skyrocketed from baron upward. And I've heard that the current acting head of the Carlos family has exceptionally sharp methods—"
"That's why their rise has been so fast."
The answer took Miles quite by surprise. The family competing with the Carls for the title was actually the Carlos family.
Thinking back to just a few months ago, the Carlos family had still been a declining family barely able to protect itself. Now, they were already touching the marquis position—second only to Duke Seth in Livorden.
That was probably difficult to achieve through the Royal Duel Knight title alone.
The 'exceptionally sharp' acting head likely referred to Alice Carlos.
In just a few months, she had orchestrated a complete family turnaround. Despite not even being a Duelist, Aisha's older sister was terrifying enough to make Miles shiver.
So if he managed to suppress Liam Carl's arrogance within the academy, would that count as providing some assistance to the Carlos family in this competition?
At that thought, Miles suddenly felt a hint of fighting spirit.
What followed was more waiting amid disaster scenes; none of the remaining first-year summons produced a monster stronger than Liam's.
Finally, after all the first-year students had finished summoning, Professor Field called out Miles' name.
"Do your best, Miles!" Nova cheered enthusiastically. "Be like me!"
"Nova, no matter how hard I try, I can't summon a Dragonmaid."
Yet the closer it got to his actual summon, the stronger Miles' premonition became about what kind of monster he would summon.
In truth, the answer had already been given.
"I'm up!"
For the first time, Miles stepped onto the academy's summoning array with his own body. Abundant mana flowed up from beneath his feet, surging straight into his Spirit Eyes.
Activating his Spirit Eyes, Miles reached his hand forward.
"O souls echoing across different dimensions, break through the boundary and descend here! Monster Summon!"
Mana gathered at Miles' fingertips, finally forming into a small, strangely shaped monster.
[DD Swirl Slime] Level 2│DARK│Fiend│200 ATK
Just as Miles had expected—it really was a D/D monster.
Different Dimension.
Miles' summons—whether it was Chi inside the obelisk tower, or the rampaging test subject before—had already provided the answer long ago.
Moreover, in a Fusion Academy, summoning a D/D monster that could substitute for Fusion cards wasn't actually bad at all.
It was just that with both its Attack and Defense sitting at a miserable 200, it didn't seem particularly suitable for the current occasion.
"Hahahahahaha!"
"A slime? That's the weakest monster you only encounter at the very start of a hero's adventure!"
"Isn't that just cannon fodder?"
Well then, of course, he got laughed at.
Especially Liam, who had just exchanged words with Miles earlier. From the grin on his face, it was obvious that the embarrassment of being ignored by Nova had transformed into pure delight.
Slimes like this, with a combined 400 Attack and Defense, were exactly the same as Mokey Mokey—an Aisha-tier summon.
Yes, an Aisha-tier summon.
When Miles carried out the formal summon, he had already sensed it… it wasn't over yet.
"This is… Double Summon!" Professor Field exclaimed.
After successfully summoning a D/D monster, the summoning mana on Miles' field was still violently condensing.
A Double Summon referred to successfully summoning two monsters within a single summoning process.
Back then, when Aisha Carlos was also a first-year, she had once achieved this in a summoning class.
Although at that time, Aisha had double-summoned two Mokey Mokey, completing a set of three.
Perhaps the legend of the god-slaying tofu began at that very moment.
But Miles' second summon was not going to be so simple.
"That is the name of a Heroic Spirit that truly existed, piercing through past and present."
Even his own test subject, during its first summon, had called forth Alexander the Conqueror from history—[D/D/D Gust King Alexander].
So how could Miles' own summon possibly be inferior to his test subject's?
A wild presence gathered in the space. The name of a Heroic Spirit, the mana of a dragon's heart, surged through Miles' fingertips.
"D/D/D—I'll only demonstrate this once. Double Summon! Break through the different dimension, dragon's heart, and carve your name upon the earth—Different Dimension Demon King!"
"ROAR!"
Along with an earth-shaking, majestic dragon's roar, a gigantic dragon clad in black heavy armor materialized behind Miles.
"D/D/D Dragon King Pendragon!!"
[D/D/D Dragon King Pendragon] Level 7│DARK│Fiend│2600 ATK
Bearing the surname "Pendragon," associated with King Arthur in the heroic legends of Britain, this brand-new D/D/D monster answered Miles' call and descended in full majesty.
"Attack power… 2600!"
"D/D/D Dragon King Pendragon…"
The laughter around the room stopped at once.
After witnessing this, there was not a single first-year student left who could still laugh.
Those who had wanted to see Miles embarrass himself, mocking the D/D Slime as cannon fodder; the louder their laughter had been before, the harder the slap to the face now.
A 1700 Attack Magnet Warrior?
Liam's face froze in a stiff smile, his complexion turning green.
A summon like this wasn't even on the same level.
No… it wasn't even a matter of competing on the same stage. It was an entirely different dimension.
The entire classroom was shaken by Pendragon's descent. Only Princess Nova, holding the card in her hand, looked thoughtful.
Nova glanced at the black maid outfit on her [Chamber Dragonmaid], then at the [D/D/D Dragon King Pendragon] behind Miles.
"It's a black dragon!"
---
If you want to support, please consider Patreon and read advanced chapters! Your support keeps this series going! [Patreon.com/RedZTL]