Weakest Beast Tamer Gets All SSS Dragons novel Chapter 699

Chapter 699: Chapter 699 - Taming the Fifth Year - Blood Debt

This wasn’t just students being greedy or desperate.

This was something coordinated by adults who should know better.

"These idiots..." Zhao’s voice was tight with anger. "Their job is to observe. To protect in case of real danger. Not to participate in conflicts between students..."

"And yet," Ren pointed subtly forward, "I can sense six adult presences positioned. They don’t seem to just be watching... They seem prepared to actively intervene."

"Yes... This is more than opportunistic theft," Zhao concluded, his voice hardening with each syllable. "This is a declaration of war."

Klein’s mind raced, processing the variables. Three groups... Tutors willing to break protocol and watchers positioned like pieces on a combat board.

He had an idea of what was happening because he’d been offered the same thing.

The memory surfaced unbidden. Many nights ago in a shadowy corner of the academy courtyard. A messenger with no house colors. A sealed letter that burned in his hands.

"Substantial rewards for those willing to... complicate matters for certain teams. The kind of crystals that could restore a fallen house to its former glory."

Klein saw the numbers... Very substantial.

The offers had been tempting. The figures were obscene for a student, even for a fallen high noble like himself. Enough to start rebuilding what his family had lost, to reclaim their position among the great houses little by little.

But this...

He watched the tunnel ahead with new understanding, pieces clicking into place.

Three groups ambushing with adults wasn’t the simple exam sabotage asked for. This couldn’t be only about the rewards circulating among opportunistic nobles. The tutors and watchers in combat positions, the tension in the air like electricity before a thunderstorm.

This looked like attempted murder.

But who could be so stupid, so monumentally idiotic to mess with a duo formed by Zhao and Ren?

♢♢♢♢

Jin Strahlfang watched from the shadows of the upper tunnel, his spirit tiger fused with him in a way that had become disturbingly ’natural’...

His fury and other intense emotions pushing him to the point where he no longer knew where the beast ended and where the human began. The marks glowed on his skin with Silver 2 intensity, product of months of obsessive doping with that new mutant blood medicine that the opportunistic noble lady had given him.

The same noble who’d arranged all of this.

The same one who’d whispered poison in his ear about justice and honor while feeding him pills that made his beast stronger and his mind cloudier. Pills that blurred the line between human thought and animal rage until sometimes Jin couldn’t remember which impulses were his own and which belonged to the slightly corrupted tiger burning in his veins.

Seeing that he wasn’t going to be anywhere near Luna’s choice, they’d decided on a "better use" for him.

The words echoed in his memory with the woman’s cultured accent, her smile sharp as broken glass.

"Why waste your huge potential on a lost cause, young Strahlfang? The girl will never choose you. But there are... other ways to prove your family’s worth. Other paths to honor that don’t require winning useless hearts."

She’d made it sound reasonable. Logical even.

"Your brother deserves justice. Your family deserves respect. And all it requires is removing a problem that threatens us all."

Months preparing for this exact moment.

Finally.

The group behind him and the two flanking him waited in silence. Fifteen young tamers total, all guided by six men and women, all former Strahlfang officers dismissed for reasons that were never quite explained. Every one of the fifteen youngsters possessed beasts at Silver 1 or higher. Five adults at Gold rank.

All with their own reasons for being here, though none as pure, as just as his.

Jin’s hands trembled slightly... Not with fear.

With anticipation.

With the sweet promise of closure that had eluded him for years. The kind of closure that came with blood and screaming and watching life drain from the eyes that had stolen life from someone he loved.

He remembered the night that had changed everything.

The details were seared into his mind with the permanence of a brand on flesh, every moment preserved in perfect, terrible clarity.

♢♢♢♢

Almost 4 years ago...

The messenger arriving at the Strahlfang mansion with news that no younger brother should receive.

"Jean has fallen... We found his body near the border with the plains."

Time had stopped.

No.

The denial had been immediate.

Jean was the perfect heir, the golden son, the brother who always knew exactly what to say, what to do, how to shine. Jean couldn’t be dead because Jean was...

Jin had run to see the body they’d brought, expecting it to be a mistake. Maybe someone else, someone similar perhaps, but not Jean... Never Jean.

He’d run so fast his lungs burned. So fast that his heart felt like it would burst.

"It was in the line of duty," the officers said, their voices carrying the hollow tone of men reciting prepared statements. "His patrol encountered unexpected resistance."

Lies.

"It was Lin," everyone said at one point, the rumor spreading like fire through dry grass. "It had to be the assistant under Selphira’s wing. Her student was the family’s son, and everyone knows how aggressive that unhinged woman has been since that tournament."

Patinder.

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