Weakest Beast Tamer Gets All SSS Dragons

Chapter 722: Chapter 722 - Taming the Fifth Year - Preamble - 2

The betrayal in Wei’s voice suggested Yang had just advocated for burning the library rather than merely suggesting teenagers should be allowed to have feelings.

”Completely.” Yang crossed his arms, his stone behemoth manifesting briefly in those rocky patterns across his skin, like they were a visual emphasis to match his conviction. ”Those two have been dancing around each other for years... It’s time they do it literally.”

The pun was probably unintentional, or maybe not, Yang had a dry sense of humor that was sometimes hard to read.

”I can’t wait,” Lin declared with evident delight, practically rubbing her hands together in anticipation. ”Will he apply the player tactics I taught him?”

The question was rhetorical but carried genuine curiosity. She’d given Ren some ’coaching’ on interpersonal manipulation. Techniques meant for ’infiltration and information gathering’ but applicable to basically any situation involving human interaction.

It would be educational to see whether he’d internalized the lessons enough to apply them in high-stakes personal contexts.

”You’re a bad influence,” Zhao commented from where he’d been observing in silence, but there was amusement in his voice.

”The best kind of influence,” Lin corrected with a wink.

♢♢♢♢

The reactions from the maids and guards were... mixed.

Mayo was practically bouncing with excitement, her usual energy multiplied by ten. Possibly by twenty. It was hard to measure when she normally operated at levels that would exhaust normal people just watching.

”This is perfect! Finally!”

Finally what, she didn’t specify. Finally they’d be forced together? Finally Luna would have to confront feelings she’d been suppressing? Finally Mayo would get to witness drama up close instead of speculating from a distance?

Probably all of the above.

Matilda grabbed her arm, trying to calm her before the excitement manifested in something that would require damage control. ”Mayo, control yourself. Luna is...”

”Devastated,” María completed, looking toward where Luna had remained frozen without saying a word after seeing the announcement.

Not protesting, just... still. Like a prey that had spotted a predator and was hoping immobility would provide protection that flight couldn’t.

The guards had expressions more difficult to read.

Years of professional training in maintaining neutral faces regardless of personal opinions or reactions. But even professional masks showed cracks if you knew where to look.

Umi had her arms crossed and a thoughtful expression. ”This could solve things.”

Could, not would... The careful distinction of someone who’d seen enough noble drama to know that forced proximity could go either direction, healing or catastrophe with roughly equal probability.

”Or complicate them?” Mako suggested. ”If Ren is as romantically clueless as always, even though they’re going to be together...”

”They just won’t coordinate and will fail the exam,” Shizu completed, understanding the logic.

Ballroom dancing required communication. Exactly what Luna and Ren didn’t have right now with all the walls she’d built between them.

Hikari, the youngest of the guards, simply looked worried. ”But doesn’t Lady Luna need this? She’s been working so hard to stay away from him despite how she feels...”

The words trailed off. Hikari was young enough that subtle social dynamics still confused her sometimes.

”Sometimes you just need to get close and talk even if it hurts,” Umi said wisely, enough to know simple avoidance rarely solved anything. ”What we want and what we need are often different things.”

She paused, looking toward Luna with an expression that mixed concern with genuine affection.

”And our third lady definitely needs this. Even if she won’t admit it.”

The statement carried certainty. Not speculation but professional assessment from someone who’d been watching Luna suffer for weeks and recognized that current trajectory led nowhere good.

Sometimes people needed to be forced out of destructive patterns. Needed external pressure to break cycles they couldn’t escape alone.

This had just provided that pressure.

Whether Luna would thank them or hate them for it remained to be seen.

♢♢♢♢

Luna stood in front of the announcement board, her enormous wolf manifested in her shadow as a comforting presence as always, while her eyes scanned the partner assignment list.

And stopped.

Ren Patinder - Luna Starweaver

No.

No, no, no, no, no.

It couldn’t be.

Luna reread the names three times, expecting them to change, to be a reading error, to be her stressed mind playing tricks because surely the universe wasn’t this cruel.

But the letters remained obstinately the same.

Mocking her... Forcing her into exactly the situation she’d been desperately trying to avoid.

’I can’t believe my bad luck,’ she thought, feeling something resembling panic climbing up her throat.

This was the most complex situation she could possibly face.

She’d have to practice with the one person she most wanted to avoid but at the same time the one she actually had thought at some point she’d want to dance with.

Before everything got more complicated, before her uncles and their demands, before her mother’s heart was removed from the barrier and the blackmail and the impossible decisions.

There had been a time, very brief, when Luna had imagined dancing with Ren without all this weight on top.

When she’d let herself have stupid fantasies about normal teenage experiences. About wearing a pretty dress and being swept around a ballroom by someone who made her heart race for good reasons instead of stress reasons.

Simple things that normal girls got to want without those wants becoming political complications or emotional vulnerabilities that could be exploited.

And now she’d do it.

But with all that bad weight multiplied by ten.

With everything she’d been trying to protect him from crashing down around both of them because forced proximity meant she couldn’t maintain the distance that kept him safe from her family’s schemes.

”How am I going to stand out in this exam?” she murmured to herself, her wolf pressing his head against her feet in mute comfort. ”How do I secure my rewards without communicating at least a little with him?”

Because that’s what the dance required. Coordination, communication between partners.

Everything Luna had been desperately avoiding.

All the barriers she’d built. All the walls she’d carefully constructed to keep Ren at safe distance where he couldn’t get hurt by proximity to her disaster of a political situation.

All of it rendered worthless by academy requirements that demanded partnership whether she wanted it or not.

Her wolf growled softly, and Luna knew what he was trying to tell her.

You’re being a coward.

”I know,” she whispered, closing her eyes against the sting that might have been tears if she let herself cry. ”But I don’t know how... how to be close to him without everything falling apart.”

The wolf didn’t respond, because he couldn’t speak and because there was no answer.

Only the inevitable reality that in one day, Luna would have to face exactly what she’d been avoiding.