The third day, there were at least six different groups.
So with girls who clearly had no genuine romantic interest but were following family orders. Their eyes held apologetic distance, going through motions they’d been commanded to perform. Others who seed genuinely impressed but uncomfortable with the situation, caught between admiration and awareness of the political ga being played. And so who... well, who looked at him in ways that made Ren want to cover certain parts of his body much more.
It was after being surrounded by the fourth group of the day, all talking at the sa ti about his "admirable qualities," that Ren made a drastic decision.
He was no longer going to be a patient and kind ’gentleman’.
He activated his shadow mana and simply... disappeared.
The shadow jump took him to an empty hallway dozens of ters away. Ren erged from the darkness, sighing slightly from the "rude" escape and the tingling sensation but infinitely relieved by the silence.
"I understand Luna now," he murmured to himself.
Luna had always been praised by others at first and harassed by so... Maybe in part that’s why she was quiet. Distant. She kept away from large groups, preferred the company of only a few close people.
Ren had assud it was just her personality, but with a bit of forced empathy now he felt he perhaps understood her better.
Now he understood. When you were seen as "desirable" for political or power reasons, when people saw you as a ans to an end rather than a person...
Silence and distance were self-defense.
Ren tried ntioning the situation with the girls that afternoon during lunch.
"They’re being a bit... persistent," he said carefully at the end, hoping perhaps for understanding or advice.
Larissa set down her fork with more force than necessary. The sound echoed across the table. "It took you a long ti to ask us for advice about this situation that’s been going on for days. How... interesting."
"Eh? No, I just didn’t want to bother you with a minor problem and..."
"First tell us..." Liora looked at him with a poker expression that Ren couldn’t completely interpret. "Does it bother you?"
Luna said nothing and also waited for the answer, but her eyes glead briefly and her mana swirled with a pattern that suggested irritation.
"If I must choose whether it’s annoying or not... I suppose in a way yes," Ren responded honestly, not seeing the trap in the question. "It’s uncomfortable. I don’t know how to handle them without being rude."
"You could simply tell them you’re not interested," Larissa suggested, her tone strangely cold. Ice beneath a thin layer of civility.
"I’ve tried. But it seems they don’t really listen to ."
"How persistent," Luna murmured, her hands gripping her tea cup with enough force that Ren feared it would break. Small cracks appeared in the porcelain under her fingers.
The rest of lunch passed in uncomfortable silence that Ren didn’t completely understand. The girls seed upset. But not with the other girls who were chasing him. With... him?
That didn’t make sense. They weren’t the affected ones, right?
♢♢♢♢
The following days beca a constant ga of hide and seek. Ren learned the academy’s least traveled routes. Discovered hidden passageways he probably shouldn’t know about. Beca expert at detecting groups of girls before they saw him.
And when he failed, he used shadow jumps to escape.
It was ntally exhausting. More exhausting than Lin’s tortu... combat training. Because at least in combat, you knew when it ended. This was constant, endless, a siege with no clear resolution.
The fifth day, Ren was hidden in a shadow niche on the third floor, waiting for a particularly persistent group to pass, when he heard a voice he recognized.
"I sll him," a girl with slightly pointed ears, sign of so tracking beast, inhaled deeply. Her nose twitched. "He’s close. He definitely passed through here."
"Are you sure?" another from the group asked, doubt evident in her tone.
"Completely. My nose never fails."
’Damn it.’
"There!" the tracker pointed directly toward his niche, her finger aid like an accusation.
Ren sank back into the shadows. The girls were improving their strategies. They were adapting, learning his patterns, bringing in specialized abilities to counter his escape thods.
But he didn’t wait. He jumped again, this ti with specific destination in sight.
Aldric’s classroom.
He erged from the shadows in the hallway near the tutor’s door at the end of the corridor, several dozen ters away from the previous niche. He was feeling that he was even improving his shadow control by using multiple jumps in short succession every day. Behind him, he could hear voices approaching. The group had followed, faster than he’d expected.
He had no ti. He needed refuge. He needed a place where the girls couldn’t follow him without violating tutor-student privacy protocols.
Ren reached the door and pushed it, practically throwing himself inside.
"Tutor Aldric, I need..." he began, words tumbling out in desperation.
And stopped.
Because Aldric wasn’t alone.
There were three girls in the classroom, each one seated with perfect posture that communicated years of noble training.
Not students passing by. Not casual visitors. They were waiting, positioned deliberately.
The first, seated closest to the window, had hair black as night that fell in soft waves to her waist. Her skin was a warm brown tone that glowed with that perfect health that ca from high vitality beasts. Her eyes were such a dark brown they almost seed black, and when they turned toward Ren, there was a strange intensity in them. Her body was slender but with subtle curves that her uniform couldn’t completely hide. The emblem on her tunic was Ashenway, but not from Selphira’s faction.
The second, in the center, was almost her visual opposite. Platinum blonde hair pulled into an elaborate bun that revealed a long, elegant neck. Skin pale as porcelain without a single defect. Blue eyes so clear they seed almost transparent. Her body was thinner, less curves but with a grace that made every small movent seem choreographed. Her emblem showed she was Starweaver, but Ren had no idea of her specific family branch.
The third, seated closest to Aldric, was sothing in between. Reddish-brown hair that caught light in interesting ways, falling in soft curls to her shoulders. dium-toned skin with a natural flush in her cheeks that probably made boys lose the ability to speak coherently. Intense green eyes that seed to evaluate everything about him in an instant. Her figure was the most pronounced of the three, with curves that even the formal uniform couldn’t disguise. Her emblem was from Goldcrest territory.
All three were... beautiful. Objectively beautiful in ways that should have made Ren speechless.
But Ren had lived the last four and a half years surrounded by beautiful girls even besides Larissa, Luna and Liora. The kingdom’s best genes, affected by high-rank beasts.
The three girls here had beasts specialized in Vitality.
But being doubles, the ’princesses’ were far above in vitality even compared to nobles specialized in this like the ones here.
So when Ren saw these three girls, his first thought wasn’t "wow, they’re beautiful." He’d gained better control over his adolescent impulses thanks to the strong emotions the seed had made him experience.
So it was more like "okay, they’re pretty, but what are they doing here?"
His perception of beauty had... calibrated strangely. Just like his perception of money. He’d been exposed to such extres that normal standards no longer quite applied.
But the three girls stood in unison, each with different grace yet equally practiced. Like a coordinated performance, rehearsed and tid perfectly.
And Aldric, sitting behind his desk with a smile that looked weird, said the words that made Ren’s sight again:
"Ah, Ren. Perfect timing. These lovely young ladies have been waiting to et you."
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