Book 1: Chapter 6: Staked duel

Without further ado, enjoy!

Howard’s face, which had become less pale than before, immediately became white as if he had seen a ghost. Which, in his case, he thought he had.

“How come he is alive…? And what does he want to do with me? …Anyways, he has no evidence. Napoleon can’t prove anything. Don’t worry Howard, you are safe.”

He thought through think logically and made his mind firm. There was no way for Napoleon to prove that he was wounded by them when they stole the bat. After overcoming the surprising lash of seeing a man he thought he had killed, he immediately became more self-confident.

After leaving the house and walking slightly away from the village, Howard spoke with a rather “High on the horse” voice, “Napoleon, what do you want?”

Napoleon was rather stunned by the question. He smiled inwardly and thought, “It seems as if Howard understood that I wouldn’t be able to find evidence. Unfortunately, I’m not as weak nor as merciful as the former Napoleon was…” *Evil grin* Of course, he didn’t do an evil grin visible to Howard. That would ruin the fun…

Napoleon cleared his throat and said, “Let’s remove the skeleton from the closet, you think I don’t remember what you and your friends did to me?” Killing intent flickered in his eyes.

*Snort*

“Pfft. Very well. What can you do with me? You got no evidence whatsoever.” Howard responded confidently. In his opinion, Napoleon could do nothing to him.

“Haha, your right, I can’t do anything towards you or your friends. But I challenge you to a duel. As a fellow card clasher, your honor has to be worth something, right?” Napoleon said in a calm tone.

From what Howard could see, Napoleon wasn’t even dejected by one degree. Yet he didn’t pay much heed to it.

“Why would I accept your duel? No, honor is only for weak people, honor is shit.” Howard retorted Napoleon. In his opinion, honor was worthless. It could make people die. And what worth is honor for a dead man?

“Haha, I admit defeat. I can’t do anything towards you…” Napoleon laughed.

Howard began to laugh as well and said, “I know, you are really stu–

“… except for killing you and your father.” Napoleon interrupted Howard and continued to laugh afterwards.

“Yes you can only… WHAT?!” Howard’s facial color became the usual white again. He said “Hey, hey, you can’t be serious, you can’t kill me and…”

“You want to bet?” Napoleon immediately replied. “If you don’t accept the duel, I hope you are faster than a Phantom tiger.”

“What do you want?” Howard asked showing signs of fear. He didn’t know if Napoleon really had the guts to kill him and his father or not. But at the same time, he didn’t want to risk it because Napoleon might have changed and become a bit psychologically defect.

“Are you stupid? I said a duel.” Napoleon said. He had long ago mastered the art of speaking. His way with words was incredible. If he wanted it of course. Usually, especially in his previous life, he didn’t show of so much since it may invoke anger from the opposite party.

He remembered once when he confronted a noble and totally beat the shit out of him with words. The noble didn’t remember. He fainted during the verbal confrontation and got a severe trauma which led to self-denial and so on.

“I…” Howard stuttered.

He didn’t want to duel Napoleon. There were two kinds of duels he could be challenged to. A normal duel. No stakes, no nothing.

The second type however, was to some extent, more tricky. The second type, a staked duel, involved both parties to stake things. The things could be anything between a favor or all of the opposing party’s monster cards. And if Napoleon engaged him in a staked battle and forced him to stake all his monster cards, all his monster cards would be taken from his deck and inserted into Napoleon’s. Except the starter card of course.

The rules and duels were made according to the heavenly laws. duels would be held in a different space, completely unaffected by the real world. No one knew when the heavenly laws came to be, they had just always been there.

There were also legends in the village about great kingdoms fighting their battles with duels. Duels of great magnitude, compassing thousands upon thousands of monsters battling each other with great glorious commanders controlling them.

“Do you dare to kill me and my dad? What if the village finds out?” He made a last verbal attack to try to scare Napoleon.

“Do you want to see if I dare?” Napoleon calmly replied. Nothing would change his mind.

Seeing Napoleon calm expression, Howard could only grit his teeth and agree, “…Sure”

After all, compared to his and his father’s life, monster cards were nothing. He could easily use his starter card to gather monsters again.

Napoleon smiled, looked up towards the sky and said, “I, Napoleon Bonaparte, hereby challenge Howard Hill to a staked battle!”

Howard said, “I, Howard Hill, accept!”

Without preparation or warning, the space around them began to warp and distort.

The sound of the space warping and distorting could clearly be heard. it was like if small particles lightly rubbed against each other. Creating a rather annoying sound.

Then, a resplendent light shone and Napoleon was transported into a room. The walls were of some kind of dark material, it seemed as if it was alive. If Napoleon had lived for some hundred years later than he did, he would have easily explained it as space.

Other than the walls of space, green and red light illuminated the room. They moved in certain patterns on the floor and walls.

In front of him, Napoleon saw a some kind of metallic tablet. If he, once again, had lived for some hundred years later than he did, he could have explained it as a touch tablet.

On the tablet’s screen, it stood in big black letters, “Place stake.”. He clicked on it. And then…!