As the year drew to a close, preparations for Fusion Academy's School Festival were in full swing.
During the festival, Fusion Academy opened its doors to the public for the only time each year, allowing more people to participate.
The main reason, honestly, was the sheer lack of students at Duel Academy. Without outside visitors, the school festival would be way too small to be festive.
However, once the event opened to outsiders, the influence of one of the continent's top three Duel Academies was no joke. Not only did residents of nearby towns come, but even fans from other cities—and even other countries—flocked to catch a glimpse of Fusion Academy in action.
Vice Principal Raiden still remembered clearly the chaos of the first year the festival was fully opened to the public, all thanks to the Headmaster's bright idea.
Crowds swarmed every corner of the academy, and outside the gates, countless visitors who had come from far away couldn't even step foot inside.
Learning from that failure, the second year adopted a new method—moderately restricted entry—and it remains in use to this day: Only visitors with School Festival invitations are allowed entry.
A small portion of these invitations goes to Livorden's nobles and financial elites, as a matter of social courtesy and goodwill, hoping they'll continue to support the academy in the coming year.
Most invitations, however, are handed out by students to their families and friends.
This approach both guaranteed a lively turnout and prevented the crowd disasters of year one.
One week remained until the festival. Meanwhile, in the faculty office—
Aisha, Irene, and Kevin had been called in after school by Miss Erin. They had no idea what was going on but were brought there regardless.
That said, once they arrived, Miss Erin was called away by Professor Field, leaving the three of them waiting idly.
"By the way, Ai-chan, did you send your invitation out yet?" Irene started some casual chit-chat.
Aisha nodded. "Yeah, I contacted my family. My parents are busy with work and can't make it, but my sister said she's really interested and promised she'd come."
"Alice-sis, huh? It's been so long since I've seen her. I kinda miss her too. So exciting!"
"Wait, Aisha, your sister is coming too?"
As if some weird switch had been flipped, Kevin's eyes suddenly sparked with fighting spirit.
"Is your sister... strong?"
"She's not a duelist, Kevin. Calm down."
Irene raised her little pink fists and waved them threateningly at Kevin.
"You duel maniac! If you act rude in front of Alice-sis, I'll clobber you!"
"S-sorry! I forgot. I'll be careful."
Realizing his mistake, Kevin recalled the Carlos family's unique situation.
On the Spirit Continent, centuries of dueling history had made nobles without Spirit Eyes a sensitive minority.
Inviting someone like that to a duel was incredibly rude.
"What about you, Ren-chan?"
"Looks like everyone's coming."
Irene scratched her cheek, looking conflicted.
"Everyone" obviously meant her parents and three older brothers.
As the youngest and only daughter of the Austin family, Irene had always been the center of attention.
She'd grown up under the doting care of her parents and brothers.
Despite that, sometimes, such an amount of excessive protection was suffocating.
Things only started to improve when she began boarding at Fusion Academy.
"What about your family, Kevin?"
"No idea. But even if neither of us mentions it, the school probably already sent the invitation."
That's how it went last year, too. As the duke of the Seth family, his father received top-priority invitations, second only to royal families like the Kaisers.
Apparently, last year the duke was so proud after watching Kaima win against a second-year as a freshman that he donated three luxury swimming pools to the academy.
There were even rumors that he had planned to gift a pure gold Blue-Eyes White Dragon statue, but the Headmaster stopped him just in time.
The reason? Impulse purchases are bad. The 87 million cost was just too extravagant.
After all that last year, there was no doubt the Seth Duke would attend again—especially now that Kevin, the second son, had enrolled.
The higher one's status, the more they cared about appearances. This year, the pressure was clearly on Kevin.
"Sigh... every family has its own issues. It's not easy for anyone."
After listening, Irene exhaled and murmured to herself.
Aisha and Kevin might have been complex, but Miles thought Ren-chan's so-called "troubles" were basically just luxury problems.
"Sorry to keep you waiting."
Miss Erin returned with her signature cigarette between her lips.
"I just confirmed the lineup with Professor Field. They've finalized the second-year team."
"Team?" Aisha asked. "You called us here because of that, Sensei?"
Taking a deep drag and exhaling smoke, Miss Erin smirked mysteriously.
"Of course. You three will be representing the first-years in this year's School Festival Class Year Team Duel Challenge!"
"Us?!"
The three of them blurted in unison, exchanging shocked glances.
Only Kevin seemed unsurprised by the announcement.
Traditionally, the Class Year Team Duel Challenge lineup was chosen by homeroom teachers, who selected the top three students.
While "top" wasn't a precise metric, most past teachers had gone by accumulated Skill Credits.
Regardless, this time, Miss Erin decided to break the mold.
Among the three, only Kevin was indisputably number one in credits.
Irene had decent scores but was far from the top… several others had more.
And Aisha? She was nearly dead last at midterms. Even after half a year of hard work with Miles, she only barely clawed her way to above-average.
Miss Erin said, "And by the way, Professor Field confirmed the second-year reps: Deion Kaiser, Irena Kartel, and Kaima Seth. You know what that means, right?"
...
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