Chapter 606: Chapter 606 – Taming the Awakening

The kiss had been soft, almost chaste, nothing like the passionate kisses she had imagined in her adolescent fantasies. But it had been real in a way that transcended passion.

After everything, Ren had completely de-transformed, collapsing exhausted in her arms.

But the situation hadn’t ended there…

Zhao had landed beside Selphira to urgently carry her in search of a healer, the wound in her shoulder bleeding profusely and requiring immediate attention. The mineral fragment had gone completely through, creating an injury that could be life-threatening for the mana depleted woman if not treated quickly.

Julius had remained atop the destroyed wall, shouting at Larissa to get away, to be careful, that they didn’t know if Ren was really stabilized.

She had realized what had happened by then, but had been able to sense through her enhanced perception that the corrupted energy had completely vanished.

“He’s fine now,” she had shouted back to Julius. “He’s asleep.”

She had used her light wings to carry Ren to the top of the wall, where Julius had been able to personally verify that the last stain of dark energy was completely erased from his body. What remained was simply a normal Ren, without any fused beast or markings, vulnerable and completely human.

But Julius had still looked at him with evident concern, clearly calculating the political and security implications of what he had witnessed.

Larissa had canceled her fusion to conserve energy, but had maintained her resolve.

“If you can’t trust him anymore,” she had said to Julius, “then I’ll take him away. I’ll hide with him and you’ll never see us again.”

Julius had sighed deeply. “Don’t be so dramatic,” he had responded, which had made Larissa blush at the emotional intensity of her declaration.

“I want to trust him too… But it’s going to be difficult to deal with what happened,” Julius had continued. “We’ll have to make sure those who saw him keep their mouths shut. And we still need Selphira’s verdict. But,” he had paused, looking at the unconscious young man in Larissa’s arms, “I agree with you. Sometimes you need to transform into a monster to stop monsters and that’s not necessarily bad.”

He had made another, longer pause. “But we’ll have to treat him with a bit more caution from now on…”

Larissa returned to the present when she heard Luna’s voice.

♢♢♢♢

“Larissa? Why are you so red?”

Larissa coughed in a fake manner, realizing she had been lost in her memories while her cheeks involuntarily blushed.

“The things that happened were many and are a bit complicated to explain,” she murmured, avoiding direct eye contact. “I’m not sure how to do it, so I’d rather explain more of it when we talk to Ren face to face when he wakes up.”

The mention of talking to Ren directly caused a chain reaction. Liora, who had been listening from behind Luna, visibly blushed. Luna also turned red, clearly remembering her own “date” and what had happened during it.

The three friends remained silent for a moment, each lost in their own thoughts about what it would mean to finally have that confrontation they had been avoiding.

The maids exchanged meaningful glances but discretely kept their mouths shut (Mayo with the ‘help’ of the other two). Some things, they had learned, were better left for the interested parties to resolve themselves.

The events that had followed had been a mix of chaos for the healers and military reorganization.

Julius and Selphira had collapsed from total mana exhaustion, but their condition had been stable, especially Selphira with her enormous vitality and prompt help from healers thanks to Zhao… Who had suffered minor injuries and had also got extremely tired during his evacuation efforts, but nothing that couldn’t heal with rest and basic treatment.

As for Lin, she had been located by Zhao early on and transported back to the school, where Wei and Yang had used Mira’s Royal Vine Rodent to help her recover and not lose her cultivation progress.

Sirius had not returned…

The opportunistic nobles who had managed to exploit the crisis for political and monetary gains had found their plans profitable in the absence of a power to stop them. Since Victor was also knocked out and only an exhausted Arturo had to deal with them for a while.

They had gained legitimacy through ‘genuine’ contributions to the defense, but Luna wouldn’t let things stay that way when the time came to collect rewards.

To finish with Ren’s situation, first he had to wake up…

And then there was seeing what would happen with the letter he still had in his pocket.

♢♢♢♢

The medical room was permeated with the soft but distinctive aroma of processed mana crystals when the twelve girls entered in formation. Liora went in front, followed by Luna and Larissa, with the maids and guards forming a protective semicircle behind them.

The sound of their steps on the reinforced mineral floor seemed to resonate louder than normal in the tense silence of the recovery room.

The two medical experts who had been working on Ren’s unconscious figure visibly startled when the door opened.

The main specialist, an older man with a Parasitic Venus, had been extending delicate roots toward Ren’s mana system. He immediately withdrew the connections with nervous movements.

“Young ladies?” the main specialist murmured, clearly uncomfortable with the presence of so much nobility observing his work. “We weren’t expecting…”

“Continue,” Luna ordered with the voice of authority that had intensified after her experience as a battlefield leader. “We’re not interrupting you.”

The doctors exchanged uncomfortable glances but resumed their tasks under the intense observation of twelve pairs of eyes. The assistant’s Parasitic Venus extended its specialized roots again, carefully connecting with Ren’s main mana points.

The crystals prepared by Ren himself that Julius had kept in the castle specifically for these situations began flowing through the organic connections, directly feeding Ren’s sleeping beasts and accelerating his recovery process.

Larissa watched every movement with almost painful attention, noticing how the tension lines in Ren’s face gradually softened as his mana system stabilized.

The procedure was fascinating to watch. The crystalline energy flowed like liquid light through the plant connections, and she could see Ren’s color slowly improving as his depleted reserves replenished.

“How is he?” Mayo asked when the specialists began collecting their instruments.

“How much longer until he wakes up?” Liora added, moving closer to the bed.

The main specialist straightened, wiping his hands on a towel. “Not long,” he responded. “His friends from the academy have already awakened and been sent back to classes. As you should be too,” he added with a meaningful look toward them.

“Their systems are completely stabilized,” he continued. “The procedure was successful. He should wake up naturally in the next few hours.”

“Good,” Luna said firmly. “You may withdraw now.”

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