Weakest Beast Tamer Gets All SSS Dragons

Chapter 621: Chapter 621 - Taming the Fifth Year - Ceremony

”She is not making up words,” Larissa said between laughs, wiping at the corners of her eyes. ”Those are literally the official terms used in certification documents.”

”This is a nightmare,” Ren muttered, slumping further into his seat until his head nearly rested against the carriage’s padded back. ”Give me a thousand corrupted beasts over this any day.”

”Oh, don’t worry,” Liora said with a mischievous smile that promised nothing good. ”The award ceremony will be the least of it.”

Ren clung to that like a lifeline, straightening slightly with renewed hope. ”Today’s ceremony will be easy?”

”Relatively,” Larissa responded, though her tone suggested ’easy’ was a generous interpretation. ”The awards will be announced publicly as always, but actually receiving them after this year’s end will depend on you maintaining a clean academic record.”

”Wait,” Ren frowned, confusion all over his face. ”They give me the awards but then they can take them away?”

”Technically, the awards are provisional until you’re an adult and fulfill the final certification of academic compliance,” Luna explained, falling back into her formal lecturer tone. ”If you incur significant disciplinary infractions or fail to maintain minimum performance standards during the transition period to adulthood, the Accreditation Committee can revoke award authorization under the continuous suitability clause.”

Ren stared at her, his expression blank with incomprehension. ”Can you say that in normal words?”

”If you get in trouble or your grades drop a lot, they take away the awards for not being suitable for the title’s responsibilities,” Mayo translated with a smile, her casual phrasing cutting through the bureaucratic fog like a knife. ”Your titles and rewards will be very large, so your tests will be harder than normal.”

”That!” Ren pointed at Mayo with enthusiasm. ”Why can’t everyone talk like that?”

”Because,” Larissa said patiently, the tone of someone who’d had this argument before, ”you need to get used to formal terminology. Your tests are going to use these terms constantly. Your tutors are going to scold you too...”

”My two tutors,” Ren uttered with resignation, the weight of it settling on his shoulders like a physical burden. ”Zhao and... who else?”

”You won’t know until the formal inter-academic tutorship assignment,” Larissa responded. ”But most likely someone you don’t know since they must be ’impartial’...”

She paused, organizing her thoughts. ”Zhao will probably focus on practical aspects related to your specific territory and local responsibilities. So the external tutor will evaluate your understanding of broader noble protocols and your capacity to interact appropriately with the kingdom’s aristocracy in general.”

”Sounds horrible,” Ren said honestly.

”It is,” Liora agreed with cheerfulness that seemed almost cruel. ”But it’s necessary if you want to be officially recognized as a noble.”

Kira cleared her throat from her position near the window, her professional demeanor reasserting itself. ”If I may, young master, perhaps it would help to know that most students find these lessons... challenging. Even if they have small or no awards, simply inheriting the lowest title can be cause for failure, and many nobles lose their place, so they try to earn it back through military service by dedicating more years than normal after finishing school.”

”Even those who grew up as nobles?” Ren asked with greater concern, his eyes widening.

”Especially the low-ranking ones,” Hana responded from her position. ”Because they assume they already know everything and then discover that formal protocol is much more complex than what they practiced at home. The difference between casual noble behavior and official court protocol is like the difference between knowing how to cook and running a restaurant.”

”That... really doesn’t make me feel better,” Ren admitted.

Larissa put a hand on his shoulder, the touch warm and reassuring. ”You’re going to be fine. You’re incredibly intelligent when it comes to complex systems. You just need to apply the same mentality you use for beasts toward noble bureaucracy.”

”Beasts make sense,” Ren protested, his voice taking on a plaintive quality. ”They follow logical patterns of evolution and synergy. Bureaucracy sounds like someone designed a system specifically to be as confusing as possible.”

”That,” Mayo said with a knowing smile, ”is because they did.”

”Why?” The question came out almost as a plea.

”To keep common people out,” Liora responded simply, her voice carrying the cynicism of someone who’d grown up seeing these systems from the inside. ”If you make the process complicated enough, only those with extensive formal education can navigate it. It’s a barrier to entry disguised as administrative procedure.”

Ren processed this for a moment, his expression darkening. ”That’s... incredibly elitist.”

”Welcome to nobility,” Liora and Larissa said in unison, then looked at each other and laughed at the synchronization.

The carriage continued its journey toward the academy, wheels rattling over cobblestones while Ren sank deeper into his seat, contemplating the year ahead. He had faced corrupted creatures the size of buildings, developed revolutionary cultivation methods, literally saved the kingdom from invasion.

And apparently, none of that had prepared him to do his patrimony verification documentation.

”At least,” he said finally, grasping for any silver lining, ”it can’t be worse than fighting a four-artifact corrupted creature...”

♢♢♢♢

The ceremony could have been presided over by Dragarion, a reality that made Larissa feel somewhat inadequate, a hollow ache in her chest where her father’s presence should have been.

The three princes took their places on the main platform. Victor, Julius, and Arturo presented a united front, accompanied by Selphira as an added ally behind them. Great powers... but they knew they were a poor substitute for the King’s presence. The empty throne loomed over the ceremony like a specter, its absence felt by everyone in attendance.

This ceremony was held every year for 5th-year rewarded youths of all schools and for any awards from the recently passed cycle.

Normally it was a boring and inconsequential small event, where the biggest stir was generated by some heir from a decently known family or the sporadic highly distinguished student who seemed to be on their way to Gold Rank.

But this year would be extremely different.

Something similar had already happened a few years ago, when the war against Yino was carried out. That ceremony had been much less about the children becoming adults and much more about rewards for war achievements.

This occasion would also bring many rewards for adults, but unlike the previous one, the young people led. Especially Luna, with unconventional achievements. And without a doubt, the biggest outlier by far: Ren.

The young man was an unprecedented occurrence. Achievements in abundance, even not just from this year, that rivaled or surpassed those of the highest contributors, and this year was the same... another enormous achievement in battle, would be the largest except for the Starweaver faction with the Twin Stars.

Julius and Selphira had carefully hidden Ren’s corruption problem, leaving only the contribution he made by ”helping to drive away the beasts”, though the details were deliberately vague and his participation had been ”illegal”... it still was something that couldn’t be denied.

His contribution in this defensive war was divided with the big ones from Selphira, Julius, and the girls on this side in Yano.

In Yino, Victor and Arturo had generated enormous contributions too, but they were overshadowed by the perceived ”final blow” of the Starweaver artifacts.

Though in reality Ren’s contribution might have been much greater, there was no way to prove it...

Still, Ren’s saved-up contributions from before the previous war, his social help with cultivation methods, his connections and contributions to access to artifacts and wealth ten years in advance, made this year’s achievements look very small in comparison.

The boy’s debut was, without doubt, a monster of achievements. From today on, any one that revised official documents and family ranks, would know about Ren Patinder.

The leaders of Luna’s opposing Starweaver faction weren’t happy with the impact this took away from their accomplishments, but for now they could do nothing.

The ceremony was prepared for hours...

When public access was finally granted, something extraordinary happened.

An enormous amount of people entered the ceremonial hall, something that almost never happened outside of close relatives of award recipients and perhaps a bit of local public for someone who achieved something decent.

But now it was packed to capacity. Bodies pressed against bodies. Voices echoed off the high ceilings, creating a constant buzz of conversation.

Ren’s parents managed to enter to the front thanks to Selphira and Julius, who had prepared a place surrounded by guards. His mother looked incredibly nervous, constantly adjusting her formal dress, smoothing non-existent wrinkles with trembling fingers. His father maintained a rigid posture, clearly uncomfortable with the attention but determined to be present, his jaw set with stubborn pride.

They had said goodbye just a few hours ago and they knew that after this he would go straight to school, but now they wanted to hug him again...

His friends’ envy had transformed in awe and his employees were crying.

Several of Ren’s teachers were also present. Lin, her eyes never stopping their scan of the crowd with the vigilance of someone trained to detect threats. Yang stood beside her, his expression serious but with a touch of pride he rarely showed, the corners of his mouth turned up almost imperceptibly.

Zhao and Wei would receive awards too, so they weren’t seated with the other observers.

The ceremony began with the less significant cases, gradually building toward the main moments. Each name announced received polite applause, each achievement recognized with appropriate formality. Minor nobles receiving confirmation of inherited titles. Warriors being promoted. Standard progressions that followed predictable patterns.

But everyone knew why they were really there.

When it was finally Luna’s turn, a big change occurred in the hall’s atmosphere. The casual chatter died down, replaced by attentive silence. People leaned forward in their seats, craning their necks to get a better view of the young Starweaver who had defended the northern sector.