Weakest Beast Tamer Gets All SSS Dragons

Ren left Selphira's office with a head full of information he didn't know how to process, thoughts churning without finding resolution.

He no longer just wanted to recover the heart for Luna's peace of mind.

Now he wanted to rip Orion's head off slowly while explaining exactly why he was dying... And Dorian's... And Magnus's. Tear them apart piece by piece while they understood the full consequences of those choices they made years ago that had killed thousands.

That purple core summoning corruption… he was 99.999% certain Selphira was right on the money.

That deliberate betrayal committed while people who trusted Starweaver protection died in their homes.

Hundreds of civilians were killed because one man wanted to ruin his brother's reputation and claim power that didn't belong to him. Because jealousy and ambition mattered more than innocent lives that got crushed beneath their 'noble' games.

Ren's fists clenched until his palms bled from nails digging into flesh, until his mana center began reacting with small black threads that suggested something trying to manifest without conscious command.

But then he remembered Selphira's words delivered with that exhaustion of someone who'd learned this lesson through bitter experience. The hostages suffering the consequences are always the innocents caught between forces they can't control...

With mutants lurking constantly beyond walls, open war against the entire Starweaver night faction would be a disaster that killed much more than it saved. More than half the territory's warriors now belonged to that faction because most soldiers had deserted the Day Faction side after the tragedy when Sirius had been absent during the crisis.

They didn't have the complete story... and wouldn't believe it easily even if told with fuzzy evidence or testimony.

They blamed Sirius for not being present when it mattered most. For allowing the wave to massacre their families while he'd been underground pursuing some personal obsessions. For failing in his duty as protector regardless of the reasons or circumstances.

Occupying most of Starweaver territory soldiers now, they weren't a small army that could be dismissed or overwhelmed easily. And although Selphira and Julius would win eventually through superior numbers and individual power, it wouldn't be a clean victory. The mutants attacking that day, or during subsequent days while forces were dispersed in internal conflict... it would be another massacre of innocents who'd done nothing to deserve being caught in more 'noble' warfare.

The exact same situation Sirius had faced years ago, history repeating because fundamental problems hadn't been resolved.

And Selphira had a bad feeling about that possibility too from what Ren had seen in her eyes when she'd mentioned it…

As if she were already calculating how many would die if they took that path, adding numbers to the mental ledger of casualties she'd witnessed over centuries.

Ren thought about telling everything to Luna, to Liora, to Larissa who deserved to know what they were dealing with.

But then he hesitated, uncertainty stopping him before a commitment could be made.

Was it prudent to share?

Would it serve any purpose loading them with knowledge they couldn't use effectively? Or would it only hurt them more to know exactly how much Sirius had suffered?

How deeply he'd been betrayed by a family who should have supported rather than sabotaged him?

Luna was already on the edge of breaking, barely maintaining functionality under the weight of the partial knowledge she carried. The complete truth might shatter her entirely, might destroy whatever fragile stability she'd constructed through desperate self-control.

And Liora and Larissa... they wanted to help with genuine desire to support a friend in need. But they didn't understand the problem's magnitude yet, didn't grasp how political complications made simple solutions impossible.

They would need to wait in pain just like him…

Ren walked through the academy's empty hallways while the night fell, making mental circles around the heavy burden he now carried.

And he felt new respect for Selphira that went beyond admiration for her power.

She'd lived much longer than him, centuries carrying secrets probably worse than this one. Ren could barely imagine the weight accumulated over that much time, the things she must have witnessed and been unable to prevent.

And yet she maintained that carefree expression when around others. That almost playful attitude that made people underestimate her and miss the calculation beneath her surface frivolity.

How much weight did you need to carry before learning to hide it that well? How many people had she watched die? How many tragedies had she witnessed while being unable to intervene without making things worse?

And still she continued protecting, still she carried others' secrets so they wouldn't have to bear that burden alone.

Ren wasn't sure he could do the same, wasn't certain he possessed whatever quality let someone function normally while carrying knowledge of atrocities that demanded justice but couldn't receive it.

But he had no choice now because Luna needed him.

And he'd promised to help without understanding the full cost of that promise until weight settled onto his shoulders that maybe weren't quite ready for it.

Would he tell her the truth about everything Selphira had revealed?

The question haunted him as he walked, the answer feeling simultaneously obvious and impossible depending on which angle he examined it from.

♢♢♢♢

SIXTH DAY - LUNA'S POV

Luna stood in front of the ballroom feeling the familiar knot in her stomach tighten with each breath.

'Sixth day. Only one more left after this.'

On the outside, her expression was perfectly neutral during the morning routine. That careful mask she'd spent years perfecting, the one that showed nothing no matter what churned beneath.

At least during the mornings before Ren arrived and everything became more complicated…

On the inside, her mind was a storm that threatened to overwhelm the careful control she'd constructed.

'Will he be okay? Yesterday he seemed tired. Did I tell him too much? Does he think I'm a burden now? That my situation is too complicated to get involved with?'

'STOP. You're being ridiculous. Ren said he'd help. Ren doesn't say things he doesn't mean.'

But doubt crept in anyway, an insidious voice that wouldn't be silenced through logic alone.

'But what if he changes his mind? What if he realizes this is bigger than he thought and decides it's not worth the trouble?'

'What if he leaves me too?'

The thought hit harder than expected, it made her chest constrict with something too raw to be simple fear. The idea that Ren could pull away now that she'd opened up to him, could decide she was too much trouble, too broken to help, too damaged to bother with...

It hurt in ways she didn't want to examine too closely because examining meant acknowledging just how much he'd already come to mean to her.

Luna pushed the door open and entered with that composure that still hid the internal chaos who knows how.

Ren was already there waiting in the center of the hall like he always was, reliable as the sunrise.

But there was something different about him today that made her pause.

His posture was the same firm readiness she'd come to recognize. His expression was also calm as always, giving nothing away to any casual observation.

But his mana…