Chapter 661: Chapter 661 – Taming the Fifth Year: The Price – 2

Luna crumpled the letter in her fist.

Seiya, Jin, and…

Klein.

Of course Klein was involved. They couldn’t forget his old mission.

The name sent a spike of something complicated through her chest. Not quite anger. Not quite gratitude. Something tangled and messy that she didn’t have words for.

But Klein, at least, had pure motives. Or as pure as they could be in this tangled situation.

He’d explained everything from his side weeks ago, in that uncomfortable conversation in her room that Ren had almost interrupted. The memory was more about Klein’s earnest expression, his desperate need to make amends…

Klein wanted to help.

Klein wanted to make up for his old actions.

Klein, in some twisted way, felt he owed Luna and Ren for all those years of being an arrogant asshole…

He wanted to pretend to give her freedom on paper. But it wouldn’t work like he thought.

Luna knew that with crushing certainty. Her uncles, being the calculating opportunists they were, would find a way to exploit the slightest error. They’d twist Klein’s good intentions into chains just as binding as the others.

Maybe worse, because Klein would blame himself when it all fell apart.

Luna threw the letter back in the box, closing the lid with a slam that made her wolf jump slightly.

“Sorry,” she murmured, stroking the beast’s head. His fur was soft beneath her fingers. “Your sensitive ears… I shouldn’t be taking it out on you.”

The wolf looked at her with those too-intelligent eyes.

And Luna knew what he was thinking.

‘Why don’t you just tell them?’

Because it was complicated.

Because they would look at her with those eyes that saw too much, that understood too much, and they’d ask why. And Luna would have to explain. Would have to admit.

Would have to say out loud the words she could just think.

‘She’s my priority. I want to get her back above any of you. Above all of you.’

Yet it wasn’t ‘her’. Not really.

That was impossible.

No matter how many tears you shed in the darkness of your room when no one was watching.

But what remained…

That was different.

That was recoverable.

Luna sat on the floor, her back against the bed. The wolf curled at her side, his shadow-fur warm despite its ethereal nature.

“He wouldn’t understand,” Luna said quietly, talking to the beast because the Tiger had too much light and she had no one else…

“Ren… he’s so loyal. So dedicated to doing the right thing. If I told him, he’d want to help. He’d want to prevent the exchange… He’d hate them, attack them and… Force them to use her aggressively and waste all its remaining energy.”

She paused, feeling her throat tighten. The words catching like thorns.

“And that would ruin everything.”

Because the truth was this:

Luna’s uncles had what she desperately needed.

And the price they were asking was… almost manageable.

If they let her pretend certain things… Barely.

If they didn’t ask for heirs. If she closed her eyes to certain realities.

If she ignored certain implications.

If she convinced herself the end justified the means.

But if Ren got involved…

Ren, who had that beautiful sense of justice. That uncompromising moral compass that pointed true north even when it was inconvenient.

Ren, who couldn’t simply let wrong things happen. Who couldn’t stand by and watch injustice unfold.

Ren, who would probably try to find a “better way” that didn’t exist.

He would complicate it.

Make it impossible.

And Luna couldn’t allow that.

Not when she was this close.

Not when finally, after so many years, she had a real chance to hold it tight.

Her wolf made a low, questioning sound. A rumble that vibrated through her side.

“I know,” Luna sighed, burying her face in the shadow-fur. It smelled like mana, like moonlight and darkness, if such things had scents. “I know it’s selfish. I know I’m hurting everyone by pushing them away…”

Liora, who had tried to help and only received rejection.

Larissa, who had offered support and advice and been pushed aside.

And Ren…

Ren, who had shouted through a closed door that she mattered to him, that he wanted to help.

Ren, whom she’d rejected with words that still burned in her throat days later. Words she could never take back.

“You’re an obstacle.”

Truth and lie woven so tightly that even she couldn’t separate them anymore.

Truth: his presence complicated things. Made it harder to make the cold, calculating decisions she needed to make.

Lie: that she wanted him gone. That she didn’t want his support, his care, his constant comforting presence that made everything seem less impossible.

“If I had to choose,” Luna whispered into her wolf’s fur, the words coming out so low they were barely audible, “between Ren and Dad… I’d choose Ren.”

The admission hit her like a physical punch.

Stole the air from her lungs. Made her chest constrict with pain.

Because it was true.

She’d thought it before, in dark moments when she allowed her mind to wander into dangerous places. When she let herself be honest in the privacy of her own thoughts.

If she had to choose. If the universe forced her to make an impossible decision.

Dad, who had raised her, who had trained her, who had sacrificed everything for the kingdom.

Or Ren, who had helped her obtain her mother’s beast, who had understood her despite the feigned disdain, who had broken through all her defenses without even trying.

She’d choose Ren.

And that made her terrible, didn’t it?

Made all the talk about family loyalty, about duty, about honor, into a lie. Made her a hypocrite of the highest order.

But then…

“But Mom…” Luna’s voice broke. Cracked down the middle like fractured glass. “Mom is different.”

Because her father had chosen.

Had chosen duty. Had chosen to disappear on that impossible mission, leaving Luna behind without even saying goodbye properly.

But her mother…

Between Ren and her mother… she had to choose her mother.

Her mother had never chosen to leave. Had never abandoned her.

And that made all the difference.

Luna stood, approaching the window. Outside, the academy slept. The lights in the dormitories had gone out hours ago. Only the guards’ lights flickered occasionally in the distance, lonely sentinels in the dark.

Somewhere in those dormitories, Ren was probably still worrying.

Probably trying to understand what he’d done wrong, how he could fix it.

Not knowing there was nothing to fix.

That this wasn’t about him.

Had never been about him.

Luna pressed her forehead against the cold glass, closing her eyes. The chill spread across her skin, a small discomfort that couldn’t touch the larger pain inside.

“After the exams,” she promised herself. “After everything’s over. After I finally get her back…”

‘Whatever’s left of her.’

The thought made her stomach twist.

Her uncles had refused to give specific details. “You’ll see it when you have it,” they’d said. “And then you’ll understand why it’s so valuable.”

Valuable.

As if a price could be put on something like that.

But Luna would pay.

She’d pay whatever they asked.

Because the alternative was leaving it in the hands of people who didn’t deserve it. Who’d use it for their political games and power plays.

And Luna couldn’t allow that.

Couldn’t.

Even if it meant hurting the people who mattered to her.

Even if it meant becoming someone she wouldn’t recognize in the mirror.

Even if it meant losing Ren.

The thought made something in her chest twist painfully. Like a knife turning in a wound that wouldn’t heal.

Losing Ren.

Not as a friend. Not completely.

But losing… whatever they’d been building. That fragile, precious connection that had been growing between them before everything got complicated.

Before she’d ruined it with her choices.

Would it be worth it?

Luna looked toward the night sky, searching for answers in the true stars scattered across the darkness.

But they couldn’t give her any.

Yet, Luna was going to get her back anyway.

No matter the cost.

She moved away from the window, crawling toward the wolf, jumping to curl up at his side. He shifted to accommodate her, his massive body a warm anchor in the storm of her thoughts.

“After the exams,” Luna repeated, like a mantra. Like a prayer. “I just have to survive the exams. Compete. Win if I can. And then…”

And then everything would change.

One way or another.

Either she’d get what she was looking for and finally could begin to heal.

Or she’d fail, and would have to learn to live with that emptiness for the rest of her life.

But at least she would have tried.

At least she wouldn’t have given up without fighting.

Luna closed her eyes, hugging the wolf tighter. His heartbeat was steady against her ear, a rhythm that almost lulled her toward sleep.

And she tried not to think about Ren.

About how his mana had changed when she told him to go away.

About the pain she’d felt there, the confusion. The hurt that had been palpable even through a closed door.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered to the darkness. “I’m so sorry.”

But not enough to stop.

Never enough to stop.

Because at the end of the day, when all the cards were on the table and all the options had been considered…

Luna Starweaver would choose her mother.

Would choose to get her back, no matter who else she lost in the process.

Even if that person was herself.

Even if that person was Ren.

I’m sorry, she thought again, the words like a prayer or a curse. She couldn’t tell anymore.

‘I’m so sorry.

But I can’t stop.

Not when I’m this close.

Not when I finally have a chance.

Forgive me.

Please.

Forgive me.’

But the room remained silent.

And Luna remained alone.

As always.

As maybe she always would be.

Until she recovered that brilliant crystal that had once been a heart.

The one belonging to the person she’d loved most.

And then, maybe…

Maybe she could start to heal.

Maybe she could stop feeling so broken.

Maybe she could finally sleep without counting figures in the ceiling.

Maybe.

Or maybe she was just fooling herself.

Lying to justify choices she knew were wrong but couldn’t stop making.

But she had to try.

Had to do this.

Because the alternative was giving up.

And Luna Starweaver never gave up.

Not even when she should.

Especially when she should.

♢♢♢♢

Two weeks passed in a blur of intensive preparation.

Ren, Larissa, and Liora had established a training regimen that bordered on brutal. Mornings in combat simulations, bodies pushed to their limits and beyond. Afternoons reviewing noble protocols and administrative procedures until the words blurred together. Nights studying maps of potential gathering zones, memorizing plant and beast species they might encounter.

Every waking moment dedicated to preparation. To perfection. To ensuring they’d be ready for whatever the exams threw at them.

Min, Taro, and Liu had joined when they could, offering perspectives that were surprisingly sharp.

It had been exhausting. Grueling. The kind of preparation that left you collapsing into bed each night too tired to dream.

But effective.

And now, finally, the day had arrived.

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