NOVGO.NET Chapter 717 - Taming the Fifth Year - Patience
Chapter 717: Chapter 717 – Taming the Fifth Year – Patience
Ren was able to keep calm now.
’Acting now would be reckless… And I’d be committing an error similar to what I did with… Worse, when this time there are clearly other options… I’d never forgive myself.’
The thought burned. The memory of mistakes made with ’Mooshito’ or even Larissa a bit.
Acting on incomplete information would probably end up leading to the biggest loss… A loss that some extra preparation and information could have avoided.
Things would be very different now…
He couldn’t make that mistake again.
“Exactly, she would hate it,” Klein sighed, relief evident in the sound. “That’s why she’s been avoiding you, why she’s been so distant. Not because she doesn’t care about you, but because she cares too much, because she knew that if she told you, if she involved you, you’d do exactly what your sense of justice dictates… And that would be really bad in many ways.”
The words hit harder than expected.
Luna had been protecting him in a way… Had been isolating herself not from lack of trust or affection, but from too much affection and knowledge of Ren’s core. Had been suffering alone because she cared enough to shield him from risks that could hurt him, and consequently her, worse than the uncles’ political games.
Ren stared toward the horizon where the sun had finally disappeared completely, leaving only the mana illumination of the area lighting the space.
“The morals learned from my parents can be considered ’my sense of justice’ eh… I suppose she had a point,” he finally admitted, his voice full of ’self-aware frustration’.
“My first instinct was to go directly confront them. Demand they return what’s Luna’s and use my maximum force if necessary… If she had told me with her weird habit of putting obvious lies first and not elaborating on her explanations…”
The admission felt weird… Acknowledging that his instincts, the instincts his parents had carefully cultivated, the moral framework that had guided him through every major decision, might actually be a liability in this situation.
Klein nodded. He’d predicted exactly that response too. Had known Ren well enough by now to understand how he’d react to injustice, especially injustice targeting someone he cared about.
“I know. That’s why I dared tell you in her place.” Klein put a hand on Ren’s shoulder, the gesture surprisingly steady considering he was touching someone who’d nearly made him faint like the other kids moments ago. “Because I knew I could explain it better… but if you’re going to help you need to think of a very detailed plan. Please don’t act instantly…”
“I see… you’ve only told the truth until now, your growth has surprised me. Do you have any suggestions?” Ren sighed heavily… Never thought he’d be asking Klein for advice. Though it was far less impossible than asking someone like Jin for counsel…
The world really had changed if Klein Goldcrest was now someone whose judgment Ren trusted on something this important.
“I…” Klein hesitated, choosing words carefully. “I offered Luna help, told her I’d fake whatever was necessary, that I wouldn’t ask for anything real in return. But despite accepting the help she still hasn’t done anything big because she needs to receive her rewards first. She’s waiting for the perfect moment… We should prepare to do the same…”
“And meanwhile,” Ren said bitterly, the frustration bleeding through forced calm, “we leave her suffering alone? Carrying all this without help?”
The words tasted wrong… Felt wrong.
Everything in him screamed to act, to fix things, to solve the problems now rather than waiting patiently while someone he cared about struggled.
“No.” Klein corrected. “I have an idea… And now that you know, your help would be spectacular. Not just you, your contacts can affect the final outcome a lot too…”
Ren closed his eyes, breathing deep.
Forcing himself past the immediate emotional response into the kind of deep thinking this situation required.
When he opened them, there was cold determination there.
Not the impulsive determination to launch into attack. One more patient, able to plan several moves ahead, that considered all variables, that could wait for the perfect timing.
And for Luna’s uncles…
Far more dangerous.
Klein saw the shift in Ren’s expression and felt a chill despite the warm air.
He’d wanted to redirect Ren’s fury… and he’d succeeded.
But looking at Ren now, Klein suddenly wasn’t sure if he felt pity for Luna’s uncles.
Because they were going to face Ren Patinder with time to plan.
♢♢♢♢
The gathering exam results were announced right after receiving and evaluating the materials, with students already assembled in the academy’s great hall.
As always, names appeared in descending order on the boards above the central platform. Hundreds of learners pressed together to see where they’d placed, some celebrating with shouts of triumph, others cursing their luck with creative profanity that would have made their noble families wince.
The energy was electric. Tense. Results meant everything for most, determined support levels, influenced future opportunities, established pecking orders that would follow them for years.
“Fourth place,” Taro read his name with both pride and frustration warring in his expression. “Better than the last exam, but…”
The sentence trailed off. They all knew what he wasn’t saying.
Better was good… The improvement was real, but it still wasn’t enough to bridge the gap to where he wanted to be.
“But nowhere near sufficient to try and catch up,” Liora completed, her eyes finding her own name in third place.
Better than before. Definitely respectable. A placement most students would celebrate without reservation. But when you measured yourself against certain standards, respectable felt like failure.
The score difference with ’him’ was still massive despite the improved ranking.
Larissa was in fifth, her expression indecipherable while studying the numbers with the intensity she brought to everything.
She’d dropped slightly from the previous exam. Not catastrophically. Not enough to indicate real problems, only bad ’team luck’. But the gap remained undeniable, even taking bad luck into account.
Luna occupied second place again.
Consistent… Exactly where everyone expected her to be with her Golden rank shadow wolf.
And Ren…
“First place: Team Ren Patinder. Seventy million crystals in value of collected materials.”
Absolute silence fell over the hall.
The kind of silence that comes when something is so outside normal parameters, that brains need extra processing time to accept it as reality rather than error.
“Seventy?” someone repeated, incredulous, the word barely audible in the shocked quiet. “That’s… that’s even slightly more than what he achieved in the previous exam without restrictions?”
The previous exam where students could bring “virtually” whatever they wanted, go “wherever” they could reach, gather anything their skills and resources allowed. No limitations.
And Ren had somehow exceeded that performance while working under the new restrictions that were supposed to level the playing field.
“And more than triple what Luna achieved now with those same restrictions,” another murmured, voice carrying the stunned realization that the gap wasn’t closing, it was widening.