Weakest Beast Tamer Gets All SSS Dragons novel Chapter 644

Chapter 644: Chapter 644 - Taming the Fifth Year - Siege - 2

The third day, there were at least six different groups.

Some with girls who clearly had no genuine romantic interest but were following family orders. Their eyes held apologetic distance, going through motions they’d been commanded to perform. Others who seemed genuinely impressed but uncomfortable with the situation, caught between admiration and awareness of the political game being played. And some who... well, who looked at him in ways that made Ren want to cover certain parts of his body much more.

It was after being surrounded by the fourth group of the day, all talking at the same time about his "admirable qualities," that Ren made a drastic decision.

He was no longer going to be a patient and kind ’gentleman’.

He activated his shadow mana and simply... disappeared.

The shadow jump took him to an empty hallway dozens of meters away. Ren emerged from the darkness, sighing slightly from the "rude" escape and the tingling sensation but infinitely relieved by the silence.

"I understand Luna now," he murmured to himself.

Luna had always been praised by others at first and harassed by some... Maybe in part that’s why she was quiet. Distant. She kept away from large groups, preferred the company of only a few close people.

Ren had assumed it was just her personality, but with a bit of forced empathy now he felt he perhaps understood her better.

Now he understood. When you were seen as "desirable" for political or power reasons, when people saw you as a means to an end rather than a person...

Silence and distance were self-defense.

Ren tried mentioning the situation with the girls that afternoon during lunch.

"They’re being a bit... persistent," he said carefully at the end, hoping perhaps for understanding or advice.

Larissa set down her fork with more force than necessary. The sound echoed across the table. "It took you a long time to ask us for advice about this situation that’s been going on for days. How... interesting."

"Eh? No, I just didn’t want to bother you with a minor problem and..."

"First tell us..." Liora looked at him with a poker expression that Ren couldn’t completely interpret. "Does it bother you?"

Luna said nothing and also waited for the answer, but her eyes gleamed briefly and her mana swirled with a pattern that suggested irritation.

"If I must choose whether it’s annoying or not... I suppose in a way yes," Ren responded honestly, not seeing the trap in the question. "It’s uncomfortable. I don’t know how to handle them without being rude."

"You could simply tell them you’re not interested," Larissa suggested, her tone strangely cold. Ice beneath a thin layer of civility.

"I’ve tried. But it seems they don’t really listen to me."

"How persistent," Luna murmured, her hands gripping her tea cup with enough force that Ren feared it would break. Small cracks appeared in the porcelain under her fingers.

The rest of lunch passed in uncomfortable silence that Ren didn’t completely understand. The girls seemed upset. But not with the other girls who were chasing him. With... him?

That didn’t make sense. They weren’t the affected ones, right?

♢♢♢♢

The following days became a constant game of hide and seek. Ren learned the academy’s least traveled routes. Discovered hidden passageways he probably shouldn’t know about. Became expert at detecting groups of girls before they saw him.

And when he failed, he used shadow jumps to escape.

It was mentally exhausting. More exhausting than Lin’s tortu... combat training. Because at least in combat, you knew when it ended. This was constant, endless, a siege with no clear resolution.

The fifth day, Ren was hidden in a shadow niche on the third floor, waiting for a particularly persistent group to pass, when he heard a voice he recognized.

’Damn it.’

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