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## Chapter 716: Body Seems Like a Child, Mind Far Surpasses Ordinary People
My name is Hayato Kobayashi, a high school Duelist who has defeated countless powerful opponents in the past.
However, to stop an evil will, I was dragged into an unprecedented Dark Game along with it.
When I woke up, I had turned into a child!?
"It doesn't matter if my body has shrunk, my mind is still that of a high school Duelist, and I can still beautifully defeat Dark Duelists that even adults are helpless against. That's the famous Duelist Hayato!" Hayato said confidently. "The Truth is only one!"
"Oh oh oh oh, that's amazing!" The young girl sitting across from Hayato applauded enthusiastically at his words. "But, I feel like the beginning and end don't quite match up. Did you hear that from somewhere else, Meriamun?"
"Who knows about that?" Hayato spread his hands and looked at the young girl in front of him. "But I've already explained it many times. I'm not that Meriamun you're talking about. My name is Hayato Kobayashi, and I don't know why I appeared here."
The young girl's face showed a helpless expression: "But even if you say that, aren't you still Meriamun, Meriamun? I completely don't understand~"
Looking at the young girl acting cute towards him, Hayato covered his forehead with a helpless expression, looking like he had a headache.
Ever since entering the Stone Tablet of Memories with Dark Yugi and Bakura, Hayato was dragged into the Dark Game by Bakura and came to this world, where he encountered the young girl in front of him, who seemed to be called "Nefertari," calling out to wake up the person named "Meriamun," who was himself.
Hayato, whose understanding of Ancient Egypt basically came from the Card World, had practically no memory of these two names. Although he felt like he might have heard these names somewhere before, Hayato finally concluded that the format of Egyptian names was generally similar and put it aside for the time being.
After entering this world, Hayato's body became that of a child. His appearance was somewhat similar to how he looked before entering the Dark Game, as if he existed in a state of rejuvenation. However, the young girl named "Nefertari" repeatedly insisted that "Meriamun" had always looked this way.
No matter what Hayato said, the young girl always insisted on this point. Hayato couldn't argue with her anymore and let her call him by the name "Meriamun."
Besides the change in his body, naturally, Hayato didn't bring the things he had on him when he entered this world. Both his Duel Disk and the Millennium Items seemed to have been left outside. However, Hayato had previously left his Duel Monsters cards in the System Warehouse.
However, when Hayato took out the cards to check, he found that the Card Spirits, who were usually incredibly noisy, were unusually quiet. If Hayato hadn't been able to clearly feel the spirits sleeping within the cards, he might have thought they hadn't been able to enter this world either.
But it seemed there wasn't much difference even if they did come in, because Hayato didn't know how to awaken them.
"Ehehehe..."
Looking at the troubled Hayato, Nefertari laughed, which made Hayato look at her. "What are you laughing at, Nefertari?"
"Because it's rare to see you looking so troubled, Meriamun. Normally, no problem can stump you, and even if you're temporarily troubled, you can solve it quickly," Nefertari said with a smile. But as she laughed, she also showed a confused expression. "But, it's strange. I feel like I've forgotten something."
"What could it be..."
As she spoke, Nefertari glanced out the window. "Oh, right, right! The ritual is about to begin!"
"Oh no, bad! I was supposed to come and call you, Meriamun, and now it seems even I'm going to be late!" Without explanation, Nefertari grabbed Hayato's hand and dragged him up to run outside. "Quick, quick, we're running out of time!"
Without resisting, Hayato was quite cooperatively dragged along by Nefertari, asking as he went, "Hey, don't be in such a hurry, Nefertari. What kind of ritual are you so anxious about?"
"Honestly, Meriamun, did you oversleep? Today is the Pharaoh's Coronation Ceremony! Most people only get to encounter something like this once or twice in their life. If we don't hurry, we'll only be able to stand far away where we can't even see the Pharaoh clearly."
Hearing Nefertari's words, Hayato's face couldn't help but show a pondering expression. If there were no exceptions, Dark Yugi, Bakura, and Hayato himself, since they were dragged into the Dark Game Bakura set up, should have started at the same time. It was impossible for someone to have entered ten years earlier.
So, following this line of thought, the Pharaoh ascending the throne today is probably...
Opening his eyes, Dark Yugi felt a bit lost.
He remembered that the moment before, he had used the three God Cards lent by Hayato to open the gate to the Stone Tablet of Memories. His soul, which had been confined within the Millennium Puzzle, left Aibo's body and merged into the Stone Tablet of Memories. Then, in that tunnel-like space, a dark power seemed to sweep over him.
Immediately after, he left that Tunnel of Memories and appeared in the sky, looking down at the Earth. The view he captured in that instant was enough for Dark Yugi to know one thing: he seemed to have arrived in Ancient Egypt. Then, falling from the sky, he suddenly woke up at this moment, as if all his previous experiences were just a dream.
Raising his head slightly in confusion, looking straight ahead, Dark Yugi was speechless in this instant, his thoughts almost stopping.
What did he see?
At this moment, Dark Yugi seemed to be standing on an Observation Deck. The Observation Deck itself was made of stone, finely polished and beautifully carved, clearly not cheap. But the important thing wasn't the Observation Deck, but the view below.
He saw dense crowds gathered below, filling every spot Dark Yugi could see. The people were shoulder to shoulder, all looking up at Dark Yugi standing on the High Platform, shouting in unison, "Pharaoh! Pharaoh!"
This made Dark Yugi subconsciously repeat, "Pharaoh, me?"
He lowered his head to look at his hands. They were not Aibo's slender, long, white hands, but a pair of slightly tanned, strong, and powerful hands that gave off a healthy, sunshine feeling, with some muscle.
At the same time, on Dark Yugi's fingers, wrist, and even arm, he wore gold ornaments that perfectly matched his own aesthetic. And on his left hand's wrist, there was even a folded golden Duel Disk that Dark Yugi had seen before with the Gravekeeper's Elder and Geb Ishtar.
Had his appearance been changed?!
No, rather than his appearance being changed, another conjecture suddenly arose in Dark Yugi's heart - this body before him might be his own from three thousand years ago, when he was alive!
And just as Dark Yugi was startled and uncertain about this baseless conjecture that arose in his heart without concrete evidence, a short man wearing a finely woven white robe and a black cloth wrapped around his upper body and head to conceal his face walked towards Dark Yugi from the side and whispered to him, "Pharaoh, the people are waiting for your answer. Please respond to the people."
The words the man spoke were not English, Japanese, or Arabic, but Ancient Egyptian, which had long disappeared into the river of history. Although Dark Yugi had never learned this language, he could clearly understand what the other party was trying to express, and at the same time, he could subconsciously answer, as if it were an instinct.
And after hearing the other party's title for him was indeed "Pharaoh," Dark Yugi took a deep breath, allowing himself to recover his calm mood: "I am, the Pharaoh..."
"Pharaoh!" "Pharaoh!" "Pharaoh!"
Not knowing what he should do at this moment, Dark Yugi looked at the crowd below and raised his hand as a greeting. But with just this simple action, the people below immediately stopped their noisy shouting and all prostrated themselves on the ground, bowing completely.
"Uh..." A drop of cold sweat ran down Dark Yugi's forehead. To be honest, he was just following the instructions of the man beside him, responding to the call of the people and wanting to give a warm greeting. How did they all kneel down just because he raised his hand?
He was completely thrown off.
Could it be that raising one's hand as a greeting in Ancient Egypt meant being angry? Oh no, I didn't learn anything like this. In modern times, I was only focused on dueling with Aibo.
After all, although he had learned from Ishizu Ishtar of the Tomb Keepers in modern times that he was the Nameless Pharaoh from three thousand years ago, the time he remembered living was all in modern times. He was fundamentally a modern person, and even knowing that he was now the Pharaoh, he couldn't adapt at all.
Dark Yugi looked at the people below who were prostrated and not getting up, seemingly fearful of him, feeling a bit at a loss. Fortunately, at this moment, the short man beside him reminded him, "Pharaoh, please come. Your subjects at the banquet are also eagerly awaiting the appearance of the new Pharaoh."
Dark Yugi nodded. Although he didn't know what would happen at the banquet, he thought it would be much better than continuing to stand here like he was on display, watching others kneel before him. So he followed the man and left the High Platform, walking towards the interior of the magnificent Royal Palace behind him.
And with the Pharaoh's departure, the people outside finally dared to get up and disperse, returning to their daily life and work.
"Eh~ We completely missed it," Nefertari said with a regretful expression, arriving late with Hayato only after everyone had finished the ritual of gazing upon the new Pharaoh's appearance. "In the end, we didn't even get to see the Pharaoh's face. We just saw a back from so far away."
"A back is enough. That Starfish Head is too noticeable for me," Hayato said with a shrug, not caring too much about not seeing the Pharaoh's face. With Yugi's ancestral multi-colored Starfish Head that had been passed down for three thousand years from Ancient Egypt, it would be hard for Hayato to mistake him.
As expected, he did indeed arrive in this world at the same time as Dark Yugi. However, Dark Yugi had an identity he could step into, so he appeared directly as the Nameless Pharaoh himself from three thousand years ago.
As for Hayato, it was like playing DND without a character sheet or playing Warhammer without preparing game pieces. He wasn't within Bakura's calculations, so he didn't have an identity he could directly substitute into. Thus, Bakura probably just found a Commoner to use as his character.
And if Hayato remembered correctly, the subsequent development should be that after the new Pharaoh's Coronation Ceremony, the character controlled by Bakura, Thief King Bakura, would cause chaos at the banquet. His powerful power wouldn't be defeated until the Pharaoh took action, but he wouldn't be captured, causing the Pharaoh and the Priests to lose face completely, thus kicking off the prelude to this Dark Game that would overthrow the Dynasty.
However, that was only under the premise that only Dark Yugi and Bakura were playing the Dark Game. Since he had also joined this Dark Game, how could he not find a way to participate in that banquet that would be interrupted and interfere with Bakura's actions?
Thinking this, Hayato's mouth curved into a smile. Nefertari, who was beside him, glanced at Hayato and said, "Ee~ Meriamun, your smile is so gross."
"Nonsense, this is clearly a smile full of positive energy," Hayato glanced at Nefertari and asked, "By the way, Nefertari, do you know if there's a more secret entrance to the Royal Palace somewhere?"
"Uh, I was thinking too much. Important locations like the Royal Palace entrance must be heavily guarded. Even a secluded spot would surely have someone watching to prevent people from breaking in. Why would I think I could just ask anyone and..."
"Ah, I know one," But to Hayato's surprise, Nefertari thought for a moment and actually nodded, saying, "A more secret, more secluded entrance with fewer people, I know one. I'll take you there now."
"There actually is one?" Hayato was also a bit surprised. How would Nefertari know about the existence of such a place?
Following Nefertari, they walked a long way around the magnificent Palace, almost reaching the back. Led by Nefertari, Hayato did indeed find a small door on the side of the Royal Palace, which seemed to be used by servants.
"There, that's it, the secret entrance you were looking for, Meriamun," Nefertari said, blinking. "Well, it's not really a secret. Actually, quite a few people use this way, but today, since it's the day of the new Pharaoh's Ascension, the Royal Palace is very lively, so probably no one will be using this side."
Just as she finished speaking, they saw two Soldiers walk out from behind the door, one after the other, and stand on both sides of the door.
"Eh? Why are there guards again?" Nefertari sighed when she saw the Soldiers appear. "I only knew about this one spot. Sorry, Meriamun, I couldn't help you."
"This feeling of NPCs refreshing as you move locations, is Bakura trying to save game memory?" Looking at the door that was previously unguarded now having guards, Hayato muttered while rubbing Nefertari's soft, long black hair, which was very much to his aesthetic. He stood up. "However, this level can't stop me."
"I already prepared my secret weapon on the way here!"
My name is Hayato Kobayashi, a high school Duelist who has defeated countless powerful opponents in the past.
However, to stop an evil will, I was dragged into an unprecedented Dark Game along with it.
When I woke up, I had turned into a child!?
"It doesn't matter if my body has shrunk, my mind is still that of a high school Duelist, and I can still beautifully defeat Dark Duelists that even adults are helpless against. That's the famous Duelist Hayato!" Hayato said confidently. "The Truth is only one!"
"Oh oh oh oh, that's amazing!" The young girl sitting across from Hayato applauded enthusiastically at his words. "But, I feel like the beginning and end don't quite match up. Did you hear that from somewhere else, Meriamun?"
"Who knows about that?" Hayato spread his hands and looked at the young girl in front of him. "But I've already explained it many times. I'm not that Meriamun you're talking about. My name is Hayato Kobayashi, and I don't know why I appeared here."
The young girl's face showed a helpless expression: "But even if you say that, aren't you still Meriamun, Meriamun? I completely don't understand~"
Looking at the young girl acting cute towards him, Hayato covered his forehead with a helpless expression, looking like he had a headache.
Ever since entering the Stone Tablet of Memories with Dark Yugi and Bakura, Hayato was dragged into the Dark Game by Bakura and came to this world, where he encountered the young girl in front of him, who seemed to be called "Nefertari," calling out to wake up the person named "Meriamun," who was himself.
Hayato, whose understanding of Ancient Egypt basically came from the Card World, had practically no memory of these two names. Although he felt like he might have heard these names somewhere before, Hayato finally concluded that the format of Egyptian names was generally similar and put it aside for the time being.
After entering this world, Hayato's body became that of a child. His appearance was somewhat similar to how he looked before entering the Dark Game, as if he existed in a state of rejuvenation. However, the young girl named "Nefertari" repeatedly insisted that "Meriamun" had always looked this way.
No matter what Hayato said, the young girl always insisted on this point. Hayato couldn't argue with her anymore and let her call him by the name "Meriamun."
Besides the change in his body, naturally, Hayato didn't bring the things he had on him when he entered this world. Both his Duel Disk and the Millennium Items seemed to have been left outside. However, Hayato had previously left his Duel Monsters cards in the System Warehouse.
However, when Hayato took out the cards to check, he found that the Card Spirits, who were usually incredibly noisy, were unusually quiet. If Hayato hadn't been able to clearly feel the spirits sleeping within the cards, he might have thought they hadn't been able to enter this world either.
But it seemed there wasn't much difference even if they did come in, because Hayato didn't know how to awaken them.
"Ehehehe..."
Looking at the troubled Hayato, Nefertari laughed, which made Hayato look at her. "What are you laughing at, Nefertari?"
"Because it's rare to see you looking so troubled, Meriamun. Normally, no problem can stump you, and even if you're temporarily troubled, you can solve it quickly," Nefertari said with a smile. But as she laughed, she also showed a confused expression. "But, it's strange. I feel like I've forgotten something."
"What could it be..."
As she spoke, Nefertari glanced out the window. "Oh, right, right! The ritual is about to begin!"
"Oh no, bad! I was supposed to come and call you, Meriamun, and now it seems even I'm going to be late!" Without explanation, Nefertari grabbed Hayato's hand and dragged him up to run outside. "Quick, quick, we're running out of time!"
Without resisting, Hayato was quite cooperatively dragged along by Nefertari, asking as he went, "Hey, don't be in such a hurry, Nefertari. What kind of ritual are you so anxious about?"
"Honestly, Meriamun, did you oversleep? Today is the Pharaoh's Coronation Ceremony! Most people only get to encounter something like this once or twice in their life. If we don't hurry, we'll only be able to stand far away where we can't even see the Pharaoh clearly."
Hearing Nefertari's words, Hayato's face couldn't help but show a pondering expression. If there were no exceptions, Dark Yugi, Bakura, and Hayato himself, since they were dragged into the Dark Game Bakura set up, should have started at the same time. It was impossible for someone to have entered ten years earlier.
So, following this line of thought, the Pharaoh ascending the throne today is probably...
Opening his eyes, Dark Yugi felt a bit lost.
He remembered that the moment before, he had used the three God Cards lent by Hayato to open the gate to the Stone Tablet of Memories. His soul, which had been confined within the Millennium Puzzle, left Aibo's body and merged into the Stone Tablet of Memories. Then, in that tunnel-like space, a dark power seemed to sweep over him.
Immediately after, he left that Tunnel of Memories and appeared in the sky, looking down at the Earth. The view he captured in that instant was enough for Dark Yugi to know one thing: he seemed to have arrived in Ancient Egypt. Then, falling from the sky, he suddenly woke up at this moment, as if all his previous experiences were just a dream.
Raising his head slightly in confusion, looking straight ahead, Dark Yugi was speechless in this instant, his thoughts almost stopping.
What did he see?
At this moment, Dark Yugi seemed to be standing on an Observation Deck. The Observation Deck itself was made of stone, finely polished and beautifully carved, clearly not cheap. But the important thing wasn't the Observation Deck, but the view below.
He saw dense crowds gathered below, filling every spot Dark Yugi could see. The people were shoulder to shoulder, all looking up at Dark Yugi standing on the High Platform, shouting in unison, "Pharaoh! Pharaoh!"
This made Dark Yugi subconsciously repeat, "Pharaoh, me?"
He lowered his head to look at his hands. They were not Aibo's slender, long, white hands, but a pair of slightly tanned, strong, and powerful hands that gave off a healthy, sunshine feeling, with some muscle.
At the same time, on Dark Yugi's fingers, wrist, and even arm, he wore gold ornaments that perfectly matched his own aesthetic. And on his left hand's wrist, there was even a folded golden Duel Disk that Dark Yugi had seen before with the Gravekeeper's Elder and Geb Ishtar.
Had his appearance been changed?!
No, rather than his appearance being changed, another conjecture suddenly arose in Dark Yugi's heart - this body before him might be his own from three thousand years ago, when he was alive!
And just as Dark Yugi was startled and uncertain about this baseless conjecture that arose in his heart without concrete evidence, a short man wearing a finely woven white robe and a black cloth wrapped around his upper body and head to conceal his face walked towards Dark Yugi from the side and whispered to him, "Pharaoh, the people are waiting for your answer. Please respond to the people."
The words the man spoke were not English, Japanese, or Arabic, but Ancient Egyptian, which had long disappeared into the river of history. Although Dark Yugi had never learned this language, he could clearly understand what the other party was trying to express, and at the same time, he could subconsciously answer, as if it were an instinct.
And after hearing the other party's title for him was indeed "Pharaoh," Dark Yugi took a deep breath, allowing himself to recover his calm mood: "I am, the Pharaoh..."
"Pharaoh!" "Pharaoh!" "Pharaoh!"
Not knowing what he should do at this moment, Dark Yugi looked at the crowd below and raised his hand as a greeting. But with just this simple action, the people below immediately stopped their noisy shouting and all prostrated themselves on the ground, bowing completely.
"Uh..." A drop of cold sweat ran down Dark Yugi's forehead. To be honest, he was just following the instructions of the man beside him, responding to the call of the people and wanting to give a warm greeting. How did they all kneel down just because he raised his hand?
He was completely thrown off.
Could it be that raising one's hand as a greeting in Ancient Egypt meant being angry? Oh no, I didn't learn anything like this. In modern times, I was only focused on dueling with Aibo.
After all, although he had learned from Ishizu Ishtar of the Tomb Keepers in modern times that he was the Nameless Pharaoh from three thousand years ago, the time he remembered living was all in modern times. He was fundamentally a modern person, and even knowing that he was now the Pharaoh, he couldn't adapt at all.
Dark Yugi looked at the people below who were prostrated and not getting up, seemingly fearful of him, feeling a bit at a loss. Fortunately, at this moment, the short man beside him reminded him, "Pharaoh, please come. Your subjects at the banquet are also eagerly awaiting the appearance of the new Pharaoh."
Dark Yugi nodded. Although he didn't know what would happen at the banquet, he thought it would be much better than continuing to stand here like he was on display, watching others kneel before him. So he followed the man and left the High Platform, walking towards the interior of the magnificent Royal Palace behind him.
And with the Pharaoh's departure, the people outside finally dared to get up and disperse, returning to their daily life and work.
"Eh~ We completely missed it," Nefertari said with a regretful expression, arriving late with Hayato only after everyone had finished the ritual of gazing upon the new Pharaoh's appearance. "In the end, we didn't even get to see the Pharaoh's face. We just saw a back from so far away."
"A back is enough. That Starfish Head is too noticeable for me," Hayato said with a shrug, not caring too much about not seeing the Pharaoh's face. With Yugi's ancestral multi-colored Starfish Head that had been passed down for three thousand years from Ancient Egypt, it would be hard for Hayato to mistake him.
As expected, he did indeed arrive in this world at the same time as Dark Yugi. However, Dark Yugi had an identity he could step into, so he appeared directly as the Nameless Pharaoh himself from three thousand years ago.
As for Hayato, it was like playing DND without a character sheet or playing Warhammer without preparing game pieces. He wasn't within Bakura's calculations, so he didn't have an identity he could directly substitute into. Thus, Bakura probably just found a Commoner to use as his character.
And if Hayato remembered correctly, the subsequent development should be that after the new Pharaoh's Coronation Ceremony, the character controlled by Bakura, Thief King Bakura, would cause chaos at the banquet. His powerful power wouldn't be defeated until the Pharaoh took action, but he wouldn't be captured, causing the Pharaoh and the Priests to lose face completely, thus kicking off the prelude to this Dark Game that would overthrow the Dynasty.
However, that was only under the premise that only Dark Yugi and Bakura were playing the Dark Game. Since he had also joined this Dark Game, how could he not find a way to participate in that banquet that would be interrupted and interfere with Bakura's actions?
Thinking this, Hayato's mouth curved into a smile. Nefertari, who was beside him, glanced at Hayato and said, "Ee~ Meriamun, your smile is so gross."
"Nonsense, this is clearly a smile full of positive energy," Hayato glanced at Nefertari and asked, "By the way, Nefertari, do you know if there's a more secret entrance to the Royal Palace somewhere?"
"Uh, I was thinking too much. Important locations like the Royal Palace entrance must be heavily guarded. Even a secluded spot would surely have someone watching to prevent people from breaking in. Why would I think I could just ask anyone and..."
"Ah, I know one," But to Hayato's surprise, Nefertari thought for a moment and actually nodded, saying, "A more secret, more secluded entrance with fewer people, I know one. I'll take you there now."
"There actually is one?" Hayato was also a bit surprised. How would Nefertari know about the existence of such a place?
Following Nefertari, they walked a long way around the magnificent Palace, almost reaching the back. Led by Nefertari, Hayato did indeed find a small door on the side of the Royal Palace, which seemed to be used by servants.
"There, that's it, the secret entrance you were looking for, Meriamun," Nefertari said, blinking. "Well, it's not really a secret. Actually, quite a few people use this way, but today, since it's the day of the new Pharaoh's Ascension, the Royal Palace is very lively, so probably no one will be using this side."
Just as she finished speaking, they saw two Soldiers walk out from behind the door, one after the other, and stand on both sides of the door.
"Eh? Why are there guards again?" Nefertari sighed when she saw the Soldiers appear. "I only knew about this one spot. Sorry, Meriamun, I couldn't help you."
"This feeling of NPCs refreshing as you move locations, is Bakura trying to save game memory?" Looking at the door that was previously unguarded now having guards, Hayato muttered while rubbing Nefertari's soft, long black hair, which was very much to his aesthetic. He stood up. "However, this level can't stop me."
"I already prepared my secret weapon on the way here!"
