When he returned to his little room in the Ra Yellow Dormitory, a pallid layer of dawn had just appeared on the horizon outside.
Yūki locked the door behind him, clicked on the little desk lamp, then pulled over the swivel chair and sat down.
He took the weighty stack of cards from the inner pocket of his uniform and habitually rubbed his hands together, looking exactly like a veteran gambler counting his secret stash of cash late at night.
The light beneath the Abandoned Dormitory had been dim, and a crowd had been standing around him, so he had only given the cards a cursory look to confirm a few key prizes.
Now, in the quiet of the night... no, in this moment of solitude at daybreak, he naturally had to inspect the goods one by one.
Yūki deftly brushed his fingertips along the edges, and the cards spread neatly between his fingers like a peacock's tail.
When he reached the fifth card, his hands stopped.
A familiar green Spell Card border caught his eye. The artwork depicted a magic circle inscribed with ancient runes, with a deep blue magical crystal embedded in its center.
[Power of the Guardians]!
And there was more than one.
With a light flick of Yūki's fingertips, two more copies of the same card appeared, stacked neatly behind it.
Three whole copies!
"Running three copies of a good card really is a civilized, healthy habit."
The corners of Yūki's mouth shot upward, and he couldn't resist giving Heichuan Jin, who had already been led away in cuffs for questioning, a long-distance thumbs-up.
In this world, even upperclass elites and professional duelists often built their decks on the principle of "stuff in whatever powerful cards you can get." Their lack of awareness about running three