Ren leaned back against the pillows, a small smile tugging at his bruised lips. "Though that first hit... Klein's face when he went down... no one's going to forget that anyti soon."
Min laughed softly, letting his shoulders relax. "Especially after all that speech about crushing victories and great differences?"
"Exactly," Ren nodded. "And in the final battle of the sester..." his mushrooms pulsed stronger, their light carrying a promise, "we'll have our rematch."
"You're right... and it was pretty satisfying seeing his expression at the end," Min sat down, his fingers finally releasing their anxious grip on his tunic. "Ren... do you think you could...?" he stopped, biting his lips.
"Yes?"
"Could you teach the correct cultivation for my snake?" the words tumbled out in a rush. "I know I should have accepted the offer before, I'm sorry, it's just that..."
"Just bring a fruit drink as an apology," Ren interrupted with a smile. "I'm quite thirsty."
Min blinked in surprise before breaking into a grin. "I'll be right back!"
When his footsteps faded down the hallway, Ren's smile faltered.
His mushrooms pulsed while his hand clenched into a fist beneath the sheets.
So close to taking him down and...
"It was a sha."
Ren startled at the girl's voice.
Luna was leaning against the doorfra, her wolf barely visible as a shadow at her feet, its presence making the light bend strangely around her.
"Can you tell how you avoided the roar's paralysis?"
Ren sighed, a slight smile returning to his face.
"We put so bread in our ears," he explained. "We could barely hear anything, but that way the effect can't take hold. It needs to reach a high volu in the opponent's ears to work, though with your beast's mana level..."
"Thank you," she looked down, a blush coloring her cheeks.
"The hits you landed on Klein were... satisfying," she continued, her eyes still avoiding eting Ren's. "Don't worry, I'll make sure to beat him in the finals. It's ti he stops feeling so important and stops bothering ."
Her fingers played with the edge of her sleeve. "And you know... I don't need you to defend my freedom. He can't force into anything if he doesn't manage to..."
"I defended you?" Ren frowned. Then he rembered the conversation with Klein...
"How do you know about that...?"
Luna visibly tensed, a soft pink coloring her cheeks. Without another word, she vanished into the shadows just as Min's footsteps returned down the hallway.
"Got your drink!" Min entered holding a glass. "I brought one for Taro too when he wak…" he stopped, noticing Ren's confused expression. "Did sothing happen?"
"I'm not sure," Ren responded while his mushrooms pulsed with curiosity. "But I think I just had a conversation with my shadow."
In the adjacent bed, Taro mumbled sothing about invincible shells in his dreams.
♢♢♢♢
Klein slamd his fist against the wall of his private room, ignoring the protest of his bruised knuckles. His golden lion stirred beneath his skin, rippling with agitation. The beast's unease only fueled his anger.
Five hits.
The number haunted him like a curse. And not just the hits, he'd needed Astor to hold Ren, needed Feng to kick his back, needed... His pride twisted like a knife in his gut.
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"My lord?" A hesitant knock at the door interrupted his brooding. "The auxiliaries are waiting to finish healing your injuries."
"Leave alone!" The words erged as a snarl. His lion's mane partially manifested, casting fractured golden shadows across the room.
The servant's hasty retreat echoed down the hallway. Klein touched his split lip, still refusing healing. Let it sting. Let it remind him of his... of his...
Victory.
He'd won.
So why did it feel like ashes in his mouth?
That first punch replayed endlessly in his mind. The mont he'd looked up to see the mushroom boy suspended above him, those cursed glowing fungi casting light across his determined face. The impact that had sent him sprawling in front of everyone.
In front of Luna... his future wife.
His fingers clenched into fists again, nails biting into palms. A hundred and ten days of cultivation. That's how far the commoner had progressed, far more than should have been possible with such a weak beast.
His own lion grew stronger every day. By the ti of the final exam, he'd have completed his family's special 166-day thod, reaching Bronze rank 1.
It should be enough. It had to be enough.
"You were supposed to be nothing," he muttered, pacing the room like a caged animal. "A joke. A rotting boy with the weakest beast in history. So how...?"
The question gnawed at him like poison. If soone with a re spore could land such a blow, what chance did he truly have against Luna's shadow wolf?
His father's words echoed: "The Goldcrest na must be elevated. The Starweaver's... Luna's power will be ours, one way or another."
Klein had been so certain. The arranged marriage would be simple, demonstrate overwhelming strength, prove himself worthy of first place and claim what was promised. But now...
He caught his reflection in the window and froze. A bruise was darkening along his jaw where Ren had struck him. Where a commoner had marked the face of a Goldcrest heir.
"Damn you," he whispered, but the fury felt hollow. Sothing else crept in, an emotion he refused to na. "If you could do this with just a spore..."
The thought trailed off as his golden lion stirred again, almost nervously. The beast that was supposed to represent his noble breeding, generations of careful cultivation. Yet today it had barely been enough.
No. He couldn't think like this.
He was a Goldcrest. His beast was superior by divine right.
This was just... just...
"A fluke," he tried to convince himself, but the words rang false even in his own ears. "It has to be."
The sun was setting outside his window, painting the academy grounds in shades of amber and gold. Sowhere out there, Luna was probably watching the sa sunset. Had her opinion of him changed after today? Did she now see him as...
This wasn't how it was supposed to be. He was ant to be untouchable, invincible.
"I won't lose," he declared to his empty room, trying to recapture his usual confidence. "Not to him. Not to her. Not to anyone."
But as night fell over the academy, Klein found himself standing at his window for a long ti, watching shadows lengthen across the grounds. And for the first ti in his life, deep in his core where even his lion's light couldn't reach, a seed of doubt had taken root.
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