"Um… Lord Kaiba."
Seeing the unusually excited Kaiba before him, Jinno's cold sweat didn't stop. Instead, it only grew worse.
Because there was one more piece of information—an even more important one. He hadn't dared to say it earlier, and now, he had clearly missed the best timing.
"One last thing, Lord Kaiba."
"Hmph?"
Kaiba snorted dismissively. In his view, nothing could possibly be more important than the appearance of a man holding a God Card.
That was—until Jinno spoke the next name.
"Lord Kaiba… the fourth Blue-Eyes White Dragon has also appeared."
"IMPOSSIBLE!!"
Faster than a face change in an opera, Kaiba's expression twisted through multiple emotional shifts in seconds.
He even began to suspect Jinno was gambling his entire career just to toy with him.
"Are you certain?"
Kaiba's tone grew dangerously serious. If Jinno got even one detail wrong, his job was as good as gone.
"According to the research chief's report… it's absolutely true. The Blue-Eyes White Dragon appeared in that duel."
"That duel? Don't tell me… the one who holds the God Card and the one who holds the Blue-Eyes… are the same person?!"
"No, that cannot yet be confirmed," Jinno corrected carefully. "The report states the Blue-Eyes White Dragon was summoned, but it also mentions the card actually belonged to another member accompanying him."
"How can that be?!"
Even Kaiba, with brows furrowed more tightly than ever before, had become thoroughly confused.
It seemed he had no choice but to see them personally to understand what exactly had happened.
"Bring them there."
"There? You mean—"
"Before the Gate."
"Yes, President Kaiba."
….
Inside the simulation room, Miles—waiting for Sid Meyer to return—had beaten several more AI duelists out of sheer boredom.
And now, he somewhat understood why even someone as lofty as President Kaiba enjoyed dueling the AI so much.
Once you learned how the AI calculated its lines, grasped its next move, and then crushed it, it was strangely satisfying.
Even so, after beating the AI, an emptiness—something unlike dueling real people—always settled in.
It was this tangled web of emotions that had likely trapped Kaiba, pushing him to endlessly seek a stronger AI.
On Miles' side, while he continued farming AI duels, little loli Kaima was surrounded on all sides by KaibaCorp staff.
"Little girl, where did you come from?"
"So cute. If the president had a daughter, she'd look like this for sure."
"No no no. If it were the president's daughter, she'd definitely look fiercer than this! Those pure, innocent eyes? No way!"
Suddenly becoming the group's mascot, Kaima was circled by overly enthusiastic researchers—and they even kept giving her snacks.
"Idiots! Stay away from me!"
Being the center of attention made Kaima quite unhappy—if anything, deeply uncomfortable.
After yelling, the poor girl, with nowhere left to hide, ended up pressed tightly against Dark Aisha's back.
On any normal day, seeing Duchess Kaima Seth hiding behind Aisha Carlos would have shocked countless people.
But now, the sight of Kaima clinging to Aisha looked perfectly natural—adorable, even.
Such was the incredible power of loli form.
Clack!
With the crisp sound of gears turning, the mechanical door of the simulation chamber slowly opened.
Jinno, wearing sunglasses indoors for no discernible reason, walked in.
"Jinno, what brings you here?"
Chi, who was clearly familiar with many at KaibaCorp, even dared to poke fun at Kaiba's trusted aide.
"This place is full of very intelligent people. What are YOU doing here?"
"Chi, don't forget. You're one of us too," Ether muttered.
Jinno ignored the teasing. Hands behind his back, posture perfectly straight—Kaiba valued this task far too much for Jinno to show the slightest disrespect.
"By order of the president, I've come to escort you."
"As expected of President Kaiba."
Just as Ether anticipated, there was only one reason Jinno would come personally.
"Time to go, Miles!"
Chi waved energetically at Miles, still in the middle of crushing another AI duel.
"Lord Miles, Lord Kaiba is already waiting for you."
For a duelist who possessed a God Card, Kaiba's most important guest, Jinno used the utmost respectful address.
"Hehe, looks like we really pulled it off." Chi jabbed Miles with her elbow, smug. "See? Just like I said earlier. As an old employee, I knew I could get you in to see the president!"
Of course, when Chi promised that, she had no idea Miles was holding so many trump cards:
God Card. Xyz Summoning. Blue-Eyes White Dragon.
Any one of them would've been enough to meet Kaiba.
"Mm. It's thanks to you," Miles said, giving Chi plenty of face.
"Chi, are you coming too?" Jinno asked. "President Kaiba didn't invite you."
A kind reminder—if she went uninvited, she might face Kaiba's wrath.
"It's fine! I'm their best friend!"
Chi's friendliness was so extreme she had upgraded herself from "friend" to "best friend" within half a day.
Miles didn't refute it. Without Chi, he wouldn't have met Kaiba so easily and wouldn't have obtained Gandora the Dragon of Destruction beforehand. If Chi wanted to be "best friend," so be it.
"We should head out. Aisha, Kaima."
Miles waved to the two girls still pressed together.
"Kaima?"
Hearing that name caused Jinno's hidden gaze behind the sunglasses to sharpen.
Then, when he saw the tiny Kaima hiding behind Aisha, the loyal secretary of Seto Kaiba instantly lost his composure.
Jinno had followed Kaiba for years. His intuition was absolute.
The one holding the fourth Blue-Eyes White Dragon… could only be this little girl who shared nearly identical features with Kaiba.
'Our president… really is incredible.'
Downright forgetting that Seto Kaiba was canonically still a high schooler, Jinno bent at a perfect ninety degrees.
"My lady! The president awaits you on Basement Level One!"
"…My lady?"
...
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