Capítulo 639: Chapter 639 – Taming the Fifth Year – Aftermath

The auditorium took almost twenty minutes to calm down enough for evaluations to continue.

Ren had descended from the platform amidst a cacophony of voices. Some nobles shouted objections, insisting there had to be a trick, that it was impossible, that Selphira or Julius had clearly planted some illusion to make their favorite ‘marionette kid’ look good.

Others, those of higher level and mana perception, remained in stunned silence, their minds still processing what they had witnessed. Their understanding of what was possible had just been fundamentally challenged.

The students were less restrained. Min especially had jumped on his seat shouting victories.

Klein Goldcrest watched from his section with a complex expression. There was a small smile on his lips, but his eyes showed something deeper. Respect, maybe. Or recognition that he had made the correct decision betting that “if Ren said he could, it had to be true”.

The head evaluator had to shout at the top of his lungs three times before restoring something resembling order.

“Evaluations will continue,” he announced with firm voice that brooked no argument. “Next student.”

But nobody really paid attention to the following names. The rumor was already spreading like fire in dry forest, leaving the auditorium and scattering through the academy’s hallways with the speed that only truly shocking news could achieve.

“Ren Patinder repaired a broken emblem.”

“Impossible. Those emblems are artifacts… How did it break in the first place?”

“I saw it with my own eyes. He fused with two Silver beasts and reconstructed it with pure mana.”

“Theater. It has to be theater. Selphira arranged everything beforehand.”

“Did you see the multi-elemental Jade energy? I felt the pressure from the upper stands. That wasn’t fake.”

Each retelling added new details, some accurate, others embellished. But the core remained the same: Ren Patinder had done something that shouldn’t be possible.

♢♢♢♢

In the upper stands, Aldric Galehart remained motionless in his seat long after Ren had left.

His mind spiraled, turning over and over the same impossible facts.

He had thought Ren was gullible. Trusting. Easy to manipulate with soft words and reduced expectations. A brilliant mind, yes, but naive about the ways of noble politics.

But what he had just witnessed…

Pretense? Had Ren been pretending this entire time? Acting like a relaxed student while secretly mastering not only noble protocols but also advanced crystallization? Manipulation of mana structures at the level of ancient artifacts?

It was impossible, but he had felt it himself in the mana. The boy had made the impossible possible, had lied to his face and created miracles…

His previous contributions perhaps weren’t a masked scheme by the castle as every noble thought. They were legitimate.

The realization was devastating.

What kind of super genius could fake and learn at that level? Could play multiple games simultaneously, each one perfectly executed, while making it all look natural effortlessly?

Aldric had been playing chess while Ren apparently played something completely different. A game whose rules Aldric didn’t even understand. A game he couldn’t see the board for.

“Father,” Seiya murmured beside him, his voice trembling with awe. “What did we just see?”

“I don’t know,” Aldric admitted. “Honestly, son, I have no idea.”

He sank deeper into his seat, feeling for the first time in decades something he had forgotten: total impotence before someone who operated on a level completely beyond his comprehension.

He gave up. As a schemer, as a manipulator, as a political player.

Because clearly he knew nothing in reality about how to handle people… At least not at Ren Patinder’s level.

♢♢♢♢

In Auditorium 7, evaluations of the elite students continued with their own drama.

Liora Ashenway had passed her ten exams with nine out of ten. She’d gotten tongue-tied during one critical moment, words stumbling over themselves at exactly the wrong time.

A single error in Inter-Territorial Negotiation Protocol where Lady Daphnia had found a ray of hope. But in the end Liora managed the other nine thanks to Larissa’s excellent training.

For someone who didn’t yet have to worry about inheritances like Luna, at least for now, and other such things, nine out of ten was excellent, and Liora knew it.

“You did incredible,” Larissa had told her after the exams, hugging her with genuine joy. Her relief was big, the tension that had been building for months finally releasing.

“Thanks to you,” Liora responded, returning the embrace with equal relief. “Without your nightly lessons, it would have been seven out of ten at most.”

Luna hugged her too without saying anything. But her hug spoke volumes, solidarity without words.

And when she tried to separate, Larissa and Liora enveloped her in a stronger embrace. Luna’s situation had been considerably more complicated, the pressure far more intense.

“We did it,” Liora whispered.

“Of course you did,” Larissa added with fierceness that came from her pride as a teacher. “There was never any doubt.”

But even while celebrating, the rumors from the other Auditoriums were arriving. So students entered with increasingly exaggerated stories about what Ren Patinder had done. Each version more dramatic than the last.

“They say he repaired a broken artifact to get his 10/10,” someone whispered, eyes wide with disbelief.

“Impossible. Artifacts can’t be repaired.”

“I heard he fused with three beasts at once and reshaped reality itself.”

“That’s ridiculous. But I heard from someone who was there that he definitely did something with the broken emblem.”

Luna, Larissa and Liora exchanged glances, a silent conversation passing between them.

“Ren,” the three said in unison, mixing exasperation with pride.

♢♢♢♢

The following days were a whirlwind.

The story of how Ren Patinder had “repaired an artifact” became the talk of the entire academy and quickly spread beyond its walls toward the city. Within a week, it had reached every corner of the kingdom, growing and mutating with each retelling.

But like all extraordinary stories, it generated division.

There were those who had seen it directly. Students and nobles who had been in the auditorium, who had felt the mana pressure when Ren fused with his two Silver beasts. Who had seen the jade light enveloping the fragments. Who had witnessed the emblem’s reconstruction with their own eyes.

These formed something like a cult around Ren’s name. They spoke of him with almost religious reverence.

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