Chapter 646: Chapter 646 – Taming the Fifth Year – Multiwalled Fortress
Aldric had left the classroom with a transparent excuse about “preparing docunts”, leaving Ren alone with the three girls.
The initial silence was uncomfortable.
Cassia was the first to break it, leaning slightly forward. The movent made her tunic adjust in a certain way so that it stretched slightly over her curves, and Ren, being a completely normal adolescent, noticed. His eyes deviated for a fraction of a second before forcing himself to look up.
His ears heated slightly.
‘Shit, don’t look. Be professional, you’re not the sa as last year.’
Cassia saw the deviation of his eyes. And how he forced himself not to look.
‘Interesting. He reacts but controls himself imdiately. Training or ga?’
“So, Ren,” Cassia said with soft voice, “tell us more about you. Beyond what everyone already knows.”
When she spoke, she leaned in a bit more, and Ren had to make a conscious effort to maintain eye contact. He noticed the exact mont his eyes wanted to deviate again and forced himself not to.
“What do you want to know?” he asked, his voice coming out slightly tenser than he’d intended.
Seraphina positioned herself so Ren had her directly in his line of sight. Her clear blue eyes studied him in a way that made those tickles on his back intensify.
But Ren held her gaze, thinking that if he felt like this it could be a type of training to get used to it, or maybe that looking away would be discourteous.
‘Why is she looking at like that? Is this a test of sothing?’
After five seconds, Seraphina blinked first.
‘He didn’t flinch. Didn’t even get uncomfortable. How does he have that level of control at his age?’
When she spoke, her voice was clear as crystal.
“Your interests. Your… hobbies.” She paused. “What you do when you’re not being the genius everyone knows.”
Ren finally blinked when he saw her do it. “Study, mainly. Lately, crystallization. I’m trying to understand how to reverse the process…”
“Wow, but… just study?” Jeannette interrupted with a smile that seed designed to be warm. “Nothing more… recreational?”
The way she said “recreational” had a tone that Ren couldn’t completely identify, but that made his ears heat more.
“Combat training,” he offered. “With Lin and Yang.”
The three girls exchanged quick glances that Ren couldn’t interpret.
Cassia moved slightly closer, adjusting her position in the chair. “And friends? You have close female friends, right?”
“Yes. Larissa, Luna, Liora, Shizu, Mako…”
“The three beautiful princesses are the first thing you ntion, eh?” Seraphina comnted, her mana eyes gleaming slightly as she tried to read sothing in Ren’s patterns. Her expression showed frustration when she only saw truth but couldn’t decipher anything clear. “They must be… close to you.”
“They’re my friends,” Ren confird, not knowing why that seed to be important.
‘Well, they’re important people, sotis I forget that…’ he thought.
‘I can barely read anything. How am I supposed to know if he’s lying or being honest?’
Jeannette leaned forward, her reddish-brown curls falling over her shoulder. “Just friends?”
Ren smiled without thinking. “They’re maybe more than friends… They’re great.”
‘Larissa helped with all the noble protocol these months and she and her family have done so much for . Luna worried and supported from the beginning. And Liora is always trying to give gifts or make sure grandma Selphira supports …’
He stopped, noticing how all three were watching him with expressions he couldn’t interpret.
‘Did I say sothing wrong?’
“What?”
“Nothing,” Cassia said quickly. “Just that you seem very… close to them.”
‘He didn’t show a second of doubt. Does he see them as friends genuinely or is he establishing they’re off limits?’
“I am,” Ren confird. “They’re my best friends.”
The word “friends” was deliberate, Cassia thought. Too deliberate.
‘He’s establishing boundaries. Intelligent.’
But Ren had simply told the truth.
“So just friends?” Seraphina asked with a carefully neutral voice. “Nothing more… complicated?”
Ren felt his ears burn completely now. “Why are you asking that?”
“Curiosity,” Cassia responded quickly. “It’s just that… soone like you, surrounded by such impressive girls, one would think that you may need…”
She stopped, leaving the sentence unfinished deliberately.
Ren didn’t know what to respond to that. He wondered why these three girls seed so interested in that specifically.
But the part of him that was an adolescent surrounded by three objectively beautiful girls wondered why they were getting closer and closer, making thinking coherently difficult.
But…
“I, sorry… I don’t feel comfortable talking about my friends,” he finally admitted.
The three observed him for a long mont. Seraphina frowned slightly, clearly frustrated at not being able to read his intentions through his mana. Cassia and Jeannette exchanged another glance.
“So, Ren,” Cassia began with a soft voice, leaning slightly forward, “Aldric ntioned social practice. Do you understand what that ans exactly?”
‘Sothing seems strange here… Let’s see if he admits he knows what’s really happening here.’
“Yes, you’ll help gain ‘experience’,” Ren responded simply. “Is there sothing specific I should learn?”
‘It seems he does understand it…’
Jeannette leaned forward. She smiled in a ‘warm and inviting’ way.
“Well, that depends on what type of interactions you want to master.”
‘I still have doubts… Let see if he catches the insinuation.’
Ren frowned slightly. “Formal? Informal? Aldric wasn’t very specific if he agreed with you in the end…”
‘Why was Aldric so vague with the instructions?’
The three girls exchanged quick glances.
‘Is he pretending or does he really not…?’ Cassia thought.
‘Aldric said he was a manipulative genius. This has to be an act,’ Jeannette considered.
‘But his mana patterns don’t show deception,’ Seraphina added ntally.
“Then it can be both,” Cassia said. “Formal and informal. But we can start with informal. Getting to know each other better.”
‘If he’s going to play innocent, let’s play along too.’
“Okay,” Ren nodded.
“So… we wanted to know… what kind of experience you have with girls in general.”
‘If he admits his level of experience, we can adjust the approach. If he lies, we’ll know he’s playing.’
Ren felt his entire face burn now. “Is that part of social practice?”
‘Why are they asking this? Aldric said social practice, not… whatever this seems to be.’
“Of course,” Seraphina responded softly. “Understanding interpersonal dynamics includes… all types of relationships. Like talks about arranged marriages or concubine prospecting. But if you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine…”
‘Let’s give him an exit if he wants to take it.’
Ren observed all three, feeling he wasn’t understanding sothing fundantal but unable to identify what.
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