NOVGO.NET Chapter 716 - Taming the Fifth Year - Truth - 3
Chapter 716: Chapter 716 – Taming the Fifth Year – Truth – 3
The shout echoed across the area.
Klein swallowed hard, knowing the next words would either defuse this situation or make it exponentially worse.
“When she says they ’let her pretend certain things’, she’s referring to things on paper. Names, territorial documents, those things… Legal formalities that don’t mean as much to her.” Klein explained rapidly, words tumbling out in his desperation to defuse Ren’s building fury before it exploded into something irreversible.
“The most important part… When she said ’if they don’t ask for heirs’, she’s not necessarily referring to blood children… She’s referring to knowing her uncles will ask that the Starweaver territory remain in the name of someone from the opposing family branch in case she dies.”
The clarification hung in the oppressive air.
Ren processed that with more calm while Zhao and the watcher checked on the fainted students. They had collapsed under the mana pressure, their beasts unconsciously shutting down their hosts to prevent permanent damage to their systems.
“Inheritance?”
The word carried weight… If not the horror of forced marriage or unwanted children, still something insidious. Political maneuvering that treated Luna like a chess piece rather than a person.
“In the end, that’s what they’re asking me and the sticking point to negotiate…” Klein enumerated, relief seeping into his voice as Ren’s mana pressure began to ease slightly. “Signed inheritance, legal adoption, or of course, as you thought, in case she ever wants to truly marry and have a real Starweaver child it would be best for them… someone they’d do everything to control from childhood.”
He paused, making sure Ren was really listening rather than just waiting to explode again.
“But they don’t care that much about which option she chooses as long as they get one and still they can’t force her… She herself also seems very indisposed to certain options, and I suppose it has to be because…” Klein looked at Ren for a moment and cleared his throat. “Well… The point to keep in mind to change that perspective is understanding that what they want is to have the territory unified and controlled to acquire power for a specific end.”
“What end?” Ren breathed deeply with effort, forcing his mana back under control through sheer willpower.
The mana around them was still dense but no longer crushing. The shift from almost uncontrolled rage to forced calm tangible in how the atmosphere gradually stopped feeling like it wanted to suffocate everyone nearby.
“I don’t know. Luna didn’t tell me, and honestly I don’t think she fully knows herself.” Klein admitted. “She only knows her uncles want to consolidate the territory’s power in their hands first and foremost.”
That was the pattern with powerful families. Consolidation always came before revelation of true intentions. Gather the resources, secure the control, then explain what it was all for when resistance was no longer possible.
“And the ’realities’ she has to close her eyes to”, Ren continued, breathing deep, processing aloud as he worked his patience through the implications, “are the injustices of the blackmail itself hurting her pride? That they’re almost forcing her into this?”
His voice was steadier now. Still angry… furious even, but channeling that fury into understanding rather than immediate violence.
“Exactly. And the ’implications’ she has to ignore are thoughts about the future of the extra territory that falls under her uncles’ control. What they’ll do with consolidated power, etc.” Klein nodded, grateful that Ren was finally thinking instead of just reacting. “And finally when she talked about the end justifying the means…”
“It’s that she’ll maybe play dirty to recover her mother’s heart,” Ren completed, comprehension finally ’crystallizing’ into complete understanding.
The pieces fitting together for someone like her… Luna’s behavior over the past months made sense. Her distance, her evasiveness, her refusal to explain or accept help.
All of it was making terrible sense now.
“That Luna using her war achievements, her rewards, everything she’s earned, to negotiate and even being willing to play dirty. That Luna with her high sense of justice, for something that should be hers by right…”
“Yes.” Klein sighed with relief that Ren finally understood the context now. “She’s quite desperate to recover what they ’stole’, and her uncles know exactly how to exploit that desperation in negotiations… But I think they know that if they push her too far they’ll lose more by forcing her to play her final cards… and both sides are waiting for the exam results with high hopes, since they change everything.”
The exams.
Luna’s performance during the defense. Her contributions to victory. The recommendations from Selphira herself. Royal military commendations that would translate into political capital she could leverage.
All of it building toward negotiations where she’d finally have enough weight to demand what was hers.
Ren remained silent for a long moment, his expression passing through several emotions visible like clouds crossing the sun.
Fury toward the uncles… How dare they weaponize a mother’s crystallized heart against her own daughter? How dare they treat Luna like property to be bargained over?
Pain for Luna’s situation… A girl forced to make adult decisions without even the presence of loving parents like the ones Ren had.
No safety net, no unconditional support… Just cold political calculations and relatives who saw her as a means to an end.
And frustration at not having known before. At being kept in the dark while Luna suffered. At wasting time that could have been spent planning, preparing, finding solutions.
“Why are you telling me this?” he finally asked. “If Luna didn’t want me to know…”
The question wasn’t accusation. Just genuine confusion about Klein’s motivations. About why he’d risk Luna’s anger by revealing secrets she’d explicitly wanted kept.
“Because thanks to this exam I trust you’re intelligent,” Klein responded firmly, meeting Ren’s eyes without flinching. “And because you need to know so you don’t do exactly what Luna fears most.”
“What could make things worse?”
Ren’s tone suggested he couldn’t imagine how the situation could be worse than it already was. But Klein knew better. Knew that horrible situations could always get more horrible if the wrong people made the wrong moves at the wrong time.
“That you launch into attack isn’t just anything…” Klein looked around at the fainted kids, evidence of what Ren’s uncontrolled power could do. “That you confront her uncles directly… surely triggers them to act desperately.”
He looked at Ren intensely, willing him to understand the stakes.
“It’s a quite powerful relic from everything I researched, Ren. The Twin Star of Light and Darkness. You shouldn’t underestimate it when it managed to destroy a monster that one of Selphira’s best attacks from a year ago didn’t completely accomplish. And above all, you absolutely must not in any way push them to use it against you.”
Klein paused, letting that sink in.
The implications started settling like lead weights. A weapon powerful enough to exceed Selphira’s capabilities. A weapon currently controlled by people who’d already proven willing to use it…
A weapon that Luna desperately wanted intact.
“Luna wants it as complete as possible… They already used it once and that devastated her. If they use it against you in combat, if they’re forced to spend more of its energy to hurt you…”
“Luna would hate it more,” Ren completed, final understanding arriving.