Chapter 678: Chapter 678 - Taming the Fifth Year - 1st Nobility Contest Exams - 2

"I’m not that bad!" Min had protested while Liora and Larissa lamented deeply in the dining hall one night, their complaints echoing through the space. "I only stepped on your foot three times!"

"Three times too many," Liora had responded coldly, her voice carrying huge annoyance barely held in check. "And you stepped on my dress two more times."

"Technical details..."

"Details that will cost us both points if you don’t correct them!"

"How can I correct them if you never practice with me and spend all your time ’practice dancing’ with Ren!"

The accusation hung in the air, more truth than anyone wanted to acknowledge.

Larissa had sighed, looking toward where Ren ate silently, diplomatically staying out of the argument unfolding around him.

Min wasn’t bad exactly, but Liora and Larissa had lamented deeply not being able to dance with Ren in the actual exam, though they’d done it so many times in practices that their complaint felt empty according to Min.

So many times that Min himself had practiced little as a result...

"Practices with Taro don’t count," Min had shouted from his table, voice rising with defensive indignation. "He doesn’t know how to dance either! We’re two blind people guiding blind people!"

"That would explain a lot," Liora had murmured, loud enough to be heard.

Despite everything, Ren couldn’t help but smile a bit at the chaos unfolding around him. His life now was almost... normal in moments like these. Students complaining about dance partners, about exams, about the injustice of random lotteries. Mundane concerns of mundane people living mundane lives.

As if the world wasn’t full of macabre secrets difficult to unravel, as if darkness and corruption didn’t lurk beneath the surface.

As if the most important problems in the world were those of teenagers at a school, worried about grades and social standing rather than life and death.

Well... If adolescent problems were concerned, Ren only wished to be Luna’s dance partner in the final end-of-year competition.

Maybe then they could talk. Maybe then things could begin to heal.

♢♢♢♢

Nearly ten days had passed since the exams began.

And now, finally, the mysterious war exams approached.

The academy had been deliberately vague about the details, maintaining secrecy. "A practical evaluation of your abilities in real conflict situations," the Director had said during the announcement, his words carefully chosen to reveal nothing. "You’ll work in teams. You’ll face challenges that require not only strength, but strategy, cooperation, and the ability to make decisions under pressure."

Which explained absolutely nothing about what they’d actually be doing.

Ren was in the dining hall with Liu, Taro, and Min, the four of them staring at the announcement board where final details were supposed to be posted that afternoon. Waiting with the impatience of students who knew something important was coming but had no idea what form it would take.

"Think it’ll be direct combat?" Min asked, breaking the contemplative silence. "Like teams fighting each other?"

"Too simple," Taro responded, shaking his head. "Wouldn’t make much sense to hide it just to make the teams more random if that were all it was."

"Attention," the Director’s voice resonated through the dining hall, amplified by mana until it filled every corner of the space. All conversations stopped. "The details of the war exams have been finalized. Please gather in the main auditorium in thirty minutes for the complete explanation."

A murmur of anticipation ran through the dining hall.

"Here we go," Liu said, his eyes shining with something between excitement and nervousness.

Ren nodded, feeling his own pulse accelerate despite his attempts to maintain calm. The racing heartbeat of someone who sensed opportunity approaching.

War.

The last exam of the semester.

And after everything he’d seen...

He had the feeling that nothing about what was coming would be simple.

♢♢♢♢

Ren was wrong...

The end-of-semester war exams would be simple.

Ridiculously simple in a way that almost felt like the universe was making a joke at everyone else’s expense.

"You will make your own group of ten students," the Director had announced in the auditorium, his voice resonating over the murmur of speculation that had filled the space. "A single leader per team. And the most important rule: only beasts can participate in direct combat."

The silence that followed was absolute.

Stunned... The kind of silence that came when everyone simultaneously realized the implications of what they’d just heard.

"Tamers will direct their beasts from designated positions," the Director continued, ignoring the expressions of shock spreading across student faces like ripples in a pond. "This evaluates not only the power of your creatures, but your capacity to coordinate, strategize, and lead in situations where you yourselves are not at the front and cannot physically intervene."

It was the most ridiculously advantageous situation for Ren that could possibly exist.

Liu looked at him from his seat, a slow smile spreading across his face like sunrise breaking over mountains. "Brother, you just won... We just won!"

And he was right.

Because the team Ren could form, the combination of people and beasts he had access to...

With Larissa, who did participate in anything that wasn’t noble protocol. With Liora, equally eager to prove herself in combat. With Taro and his mountain of rock and muscle. With Liu and his hyena. With Min and his serpent. And himself with his impossible collection.

Six double tamers on a single team.

Well, Ren was technically quadruple, but in practice functioned as triple in combat when not using the Small encysted mushroom. That was still seven beasts of advantage over almost all other teams before even considering ranks or abilities. A numerical superiority that bordered on unfair.

The four lucky ones to join his team were the two maids and two guards.

Larissa and Liora’s two servants, both common but competent tamers in their own right. And the two guards Mako and Shizu, who were always near Ren anyway, both Gold rank with experience that showed in every movement.

Ten slots.

An impossible army assembled through friendship, loyalty, and strategic positioning over years of careful relationship building.

"This isn’t fair," Roran had murmured from the back rows, his voice carrying complaint mixed with envy.

"War is never fair," Lin had responded with a predatory smile from her position beside Yang, satisfaction evident in her expression. "That’s the point."