Chapter 633: Chapter 633 - Taming the Fifth Year - First Exams - 5

Ren was showering after training with Lin.

Right hand over the heart, but the fingers didn’t feel right. The position was technically correct according to the diagrams, but something was off. Something subtle that he couldn’t quite identify.

Ren stepped out of the shower to dry himself but kept practicing, his body moving through the motions even as water dripped onto the bathroom floor. His reflection in the foggy mirror showed the awkwardness of his movements, the way his body fought against positions it ’didn’t like’.

When...

The door to the adjacent bathroom burst open.

Ren spun instinctively, still in a half-completed bow position, completely naked except for a towel that was barely hanging on.

Klein Goldcrest stood in the doorway, his eyes wide open like plates.

For a moment, neither of them moved.

Then Klein burst into laughter. "What the hell are you doing, Patinder? Practicing bows naked in the bathroom?"

Ren felt his cheeks burn, heat crawling up his neck and into his face. But then he relaxed. Actually, why be embarrassed? Klein was noble. Klein would know these things, right?

"Yes," he responded simply, straightening and now completely naked as his towel fell to the floor with a wet slap. "I can’t get it right. Can you show me how to do it correctly?"

The question was earnest, practical. Stripped of any awareness of how bizarre the situation was.

Klein stopped laughing abruptly. His mouth opened and closed several times, his face cycling through several shades of red.

"Are you... are you joking?"

"No," Ren gestured toward his body, thinking about positioning and ignoring everything else. The nakedness didn’t register as important compared to the information he needed. "Show me. Please. I’ve been trying thousands of times to understand the correct angle and I can’t..."

"At least put some clothes on!" Klein practically shouted, averting his gaze with the desperation of someone feeling deeply uncomfortable right now. His eyes locked onto the ceiling, the wall, anywhere but forward.

"Why would it matter? You’re a man too. And I feel it would be better to see how the complete body moves without clothes getting in the way of..."

"Okay... No, nope!" Klein raised his hands in surrender, still not looking directly at Ren. "I’m leaving. Forget I came."

But when he reached the door, he stopped.

His shoulders tensed, muscles visibly tightening beneath his towels. And then, with a lower voice, he murmured: "Your right hand... the index and middle fingers go together too. Ring and pinky fingers slightly bent. Thumb doesn’t press the palm."

Ren blinked, processing the specific correction. "Really?"

"It’s the correct form," Klein continued without turning around, his voice now strangely soft, almost vulnerable. "Your tutor probably taught you the simplified version that doesn’t focus on details."

"Simplified?"

"The one common people use when presenting before nobles," Klein finally turned slightly, still avoiding looking directly at Ren’s naked form. "But you’re going to be evaluated by the Royal Educational Consortium. You need the court version if you don’t want them to see you as ’new rich’."

The term carried weight, contempt wrapped in elegance. New money. Upstart. Pretender.

There was a moment of silence, heavy with things unsaid.

"So you changed your mind... Why are you helping me in the end?" Ren asked finally, genuine confusion in his voice.

Klein tensed visibly. When he spoke, his voice was barely audible, as if the words hurt to say. "Because... because I don’t want to owe you anything. You... saved my life. Several times. Gave me your insane method to be able to achieve Gold rank... And I was an idiot to you."

He paused, swallowing hard.

"So consider this part of settling that debt. Nothing more."

And then he left, closing the door with more force than necessary.

Ren stood in the middle of the bathroom, completely naked, water still dripping from his hair, processing what had just happened.

Then he looked at his hands, positioning them as Klein had described. Index and middle fingers together. Ring and pinky slightly bent. Thumb relaxed.

It felt... different. More formal. More intentional.

"Interesting," he murmured, studying the position in the mirror.

♢♢♢♢

Despite everything, Ren continued having problems achieving the correct body angles.

His body kept wanting to adjust in ways that were wrong to ceremonial precision.

And then there was the small detail that his guards had noticed today while following him that his tutor was Aldric Galehart.

The name had meant nothing to Ren initially. Just another noble tutor assigned by the system. But to those who knew the political landscape, who understood the currents beneath the surface, it was a red flag the size of a banner.

When Selphira and Larissa found out on the fourth day that Ren was being "taught" by Aldric Galehart, their reaction was immediate.

"That man," Larissa had said with a cold voice, "tried to sabotage Luna along with Morgain... And you didn’t tell me he’s now your tutor?"

"I see. Yes I didn’t tell you, but I didn’t know that..."

"There are no buts," Larissa had interrupted. "From now on, you’re going to study with me too. Every day. No exceptions."

And thus had begun a training regimen that made Lin’s classes seem like relaxing vacations.

Larissa had standards that bordered on the impossible. Each movement had to be perfect. Each word modulated with exact precision. Each angle measured with millimetric accuracy.

"No, no, no," she would say for the hundredth time in an hour, watching Ren attempt another bow. Her tone was patient but firm, the voice of someone who would accept nothing less than perfection.

"Your back is three degrees too inclined. And your fingers... how many times do I have to tell you the pinky shouldn’t be completely extended?"

Ren tried again. And again. And again.

But something was fundamentally broken in how his body processed these movements. Like a machine designed for one purpose being forced to perform another.

The days passed in a blur of failed attempts and growing frustration.

Klein kept helping in the bathroom, explaining "casually" whenever he saw something that could be corrected.

Min also contributed what he knew, which was surprisingly a lot given that his tutors had been torturing him with obsessive attention to detail too.

But nothing seemed sufficient to reach Larissa’s standards.

Her disappointment was never voiced, but Ren could see it in the tiny tightening around her eyes, the slight sag in her shoulders when he failed the same correction for the tenth time.

♢♢♢♢

"Why is being noble so difficult?" Ren complained one morning, after his combat practice with Lin. His body ached from the physical training, and his mind ached from the mental gymnastics of protocol. "I learn your combat techniques without problems."

"I think it’s because your body is adapted for efficiency," Lin had explained when he asked. She had observed him practice for years and had diagnosed the problem immediately after Ren explained his situation to her.