Chapter 5
It was the day after my mid-afternoon duel with Chazz and nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary, unless you considered Alexis and Chazz being a little more tired than is usual for the first class of the day to be out of the ordinary.
Also Jaden and Syrus had their heads down and would audibly snore every now and then, it was funny at first but it got old fast, so old in fact that Professor Drummond had long since given up on waking him up.
On an unrelated note I'd have to see if the group needed better notes for this class than what we could collectively offer each other, in which case I'd have to talk to Professor Drummond.
"Pardon me, Professor Drummond, but I need to borrow one of your students." The stoic voice of Zane Truesdale said as he entered the room and handed the teacher a hall pass and a note to look over.
"Do you know how long he's going to be gone?" Drummond sighed as he began to write two new hall passes for Zane.
"I'm afraid not." Zane replied.
"Right, of course. Dylan get up here!" the teacher called out. "You and Zane are going for a walk." Drummond continued as he handed us both our passes once I reached the front of the room, then I quietly followed Zane out of the room.
Though one look at the hall pass was enough to make me rethink my choice, if only for a moment.
"So any idea why Chancellor Sheppard wants to see me?" I asked trying to make a bit of small talk on the way, which Zane was having none of.
After an awkwardly long and silent walk we finally reached our destination. The Chancellor's Office. Zane knocked three times and the reply of enter could be heard through the door afterwards.
On the other side of the door there was of course Chancellor Sheppard sitting at an expensive if not plain looking wooden desk save for a few personal effects in an office chair that seemed to be a stylistic mimicry of the desk, professional but otherwise bland.
But the schools chancellor wasn't who had me mentally shaking in my shoes that honor was currently shared by two titans of the game this school was built to preserve and uphold for future generations.
"Ah good you've arrived please have a seat." Sheppard intoned casually, gesturing to one of three open seats across from his desk. And were it not for the place or the two people who must have been teleconferencing with us via some kind of smart glass in the office windows I might have thought he just wanted to talk to me about something far more mundane.
"So about Magician's Rod," the one-eyed Mr. Pegasus began gently curiosity getting the better of him."
"What about it?" I asked when it became clear that no one wanted to pick up on his line of thought.
"It doesn't fucking exist, or that is to say it didn't until you played it." Kaiba snorted angrily, clearly not amused at the thought of me playing dumb right now. Which I wasn't.
"Now had this been the first or even only discrepancy about you that we'd uncovered, we might have been able to overlook the lions share of any sort of card hi-jinks you'd have had in the future if you had only come to us first. Unfortunately we are not just talking about some simple card game shenanigans." Sheppard said leveling a look at me that seemed say that whatever I had done, it went beyond the yet to be spoken accusation of cheating, so very far beyond.
"What do you mean?" I asked becoming increasingly nervous as to what they meant.
"What we want to know is who are you really, and why did you lie, cheat, and continue to cheat upon your arrival on the island?" Kaiba finally snapped.
"Not to mention how?" Pegasus threw in more as an afterthought than anything else.
"I—"
"You hoo, so sorry I'm late everyone, sadly my other meeting went a little long."
"Siegfried, I don't recall inviting you to this meeting." Kaiba said eyeing the late arrival with obvious distaste.
"That is because Herr Pegasus did, saying something about how as we are all working with each other now we should make a habit of keeping each other appraised on matters like this." Explained the head of Schroeder Corp.
"Did he happen to tell you what we were meeting about?" Kaiba seethed.
"Only that it is an urgent matter to be dealt with the utmost swiftness and discretion, after all, we don't need news of this reaching the public now do we boys." Pegasus cut in.
"And it seems this young man here has some explaining to do for, oh my, this would be very bad for us all." Siegfried said as he caught himself up with the meeting.
"You know, I'm sure I could explain things if you'd all give me the chance!" My outrage and indignation finally boiling over.
"Then by all means." Kaiba invited me, effectively taking back some semblance of control in the meeting.
"Well I would but I don't think we should have other students in the room while I'm doing this." I signaled that it was time for Zane to leave.
"Right, Zane, you should return to your studies now." The Chancellor dismissed his star pupil.
"Right so let me just say that I can't be sure how I ended up in the inky darkness that preceded what was before my being here or who it really was that brought me here, what I can tell you is where I was before all of this started and where every card currently in my possession comes from."
"Which is where exactly?" Chancellor Shepard questioned stoically.
"Another world, specifically my home."
"Do you have any proof?" Kaiba quirked a brow after a pregnant pause went through the room.
"If you mean aside from the evidence you've already compiled against me, than yes I believe I do have something that would suffice as proof." I replied as I fished a card out of my pack and showed it to the room at large
"Predaplant Verte Anaconda?" The room read off aloud.
"I take it this one doesn't have a chip in it either than?" Kaiba glowered.
"Nope." I shook my head.
"Are any of your cards chipped?"
"I think we all know the answer to that already?" I smirked.
"Are there any other cards we should know about?" Pegasus eyed me with intrigue.
"I can assure you, there are plenty more cards some of which I'd be willing to trade for, and others that I just plain don't posses." I offered up to the room.
"Right well I don't know about the rest of you but I find his explanation credible enough." Pegasus voiced.
"And it would explain some things about his application documents." Siegfried added.
"Dylan, if that is your real name, you may continue your studies at Central Academy for now and provided the usual probationary conditions for the academy are met you will not be expelled. Now, if there's nothing else, get out." Kaiba ruled.
"What are the usual conditions though?"
"You'll be sent a list with the exact details of your probation, now if you don't mind please return to your studies Crowler should be wrapping up his class shortly so go collect your homework from him and then make your way straight to the locker rooms for P.E. with Ms. Fontaine. Understood?" Sheppard cut his way back into the conversation while effectively ending it by handing me a hall pass.