Chapter 500 - Taming Opportunities

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Chapter 500: Chapter 500 - Taming Opportunities Ren saw the director limping slightly while helping coordinate the purifications and immediately approached Selphira. "Could you please heal his leg completely?" he asked, pointing toward where the director was working. Selphira followed his gaze and nodded immediately. "Now I can make them perfect," she murmured, approaching the director. "You’ve been limping for too long." When Selphira applied her healing magic amplified with the elixir and the turtle’s purification, the director experienced a more intense resonance than when Ren purified him. His Phoenix, sensing the energy, began to glow with a warmth that extended beyond personal healing. "Incredible," the director murmured, testing his completely restored leg. "I had become so accustomed to the inconvenience that I had forgotten how it felt to be whole." His Phoenix, now revitalized by the healing, began helping with purifications. The warmth it emanated had a particularly effective effect against residual corruption, significantly accelerating the cleansing process. Sirius returned shortly to help Selphira purify after his meetings about the critical decisions that had been made during the last hours. His expression showed the fatigue of someone who had been evaluating candidates and making decisions that would affect lives and the kingdom’s future. "They’re going to notify the chosen ones soon," he told Selphira, his voice carrying both relief and apprehension about what was coming. Ren heard the conversation while resting and recovering mana from constant purifications and began thinking about the people he could choose to become doubles. His eyes turned toward Yang, who had demonstrated genuine loyalty during critical situations. The director, now completely healed and with his Phoenix actively helping operations, also seemed like a natural candidate. His experience and dedication to education, as well as his support against the enemy, made him valuable in both times of peace and war. Even Wei had shown good qualities despite the way they met... he perhaps loved knowledge with too much impetus, even immature in defending it, but had proven not to be a bad guy in reality. Each person Ren was contemplating represented not just individual merit, but the potential to strengthen the kingdom’s foundation through education, loyalty, and specialized skills. "Difficult decisions," Ren murmured to himself, understanding that each choice could have ramifications extending far beyond the immediate conflict. ♢♢♢♢ Days after the purification operations, a royal ceremony had given post-war awards to more than 100 nobles and soldiers in a celebratory mood... In a discreet mansion under Starweaver control, a small gathering of nobles showed a very different mood. The room was filled with tension and mutual recriminations, the air thick with frustration and missed opportunities. "One whole day later we found out about the doubles situation," Lord Aldric complained, one of the minor nobles who had bet his political future on the opportunistic faction. "And what did we do to stay alert? Nothing!" "It’s not my fault you all waited until the last moment to decide," Lady Morgain replied, whose house had historical ties to Goldcrest territory. "You were all ’evaluating the situation’." "Evaluating," Lord Baelthon repeated sarcastically, whose family had been traditional detractors of the Ashenway. "While the king returned and began creating more than a hundred new doubles who will be grateful to him, none to us." The realization of how unbalanced their opportunistic faction had become was evident on every face in the room. They had calculated on the king’s absence being permanent, or at least long enough for them to reshape the power structure. Instead, his return had caught them completely unprepared. "At least not helping Kharzan seemed to be a good decision in the end," Lord Caelum observed, trying to find some positive aspect in their collective inaction. "A correct decision for the wrong reasons," Lady Daphina responded, whose house was a minor branch of the Dravenholm. "We waited too long to take any decisive action." "And now," Lord Aldric added bitterly, "not supporting at the critical moment left us completely out of the rewards." The room fell into uncomfortable silence as each noble processed the implications of their political decisions. Many represented houses that had been traditional allies of Goldcrest territory families, minor branches of main houses, or even historical detractors of different factions who had thought they could benefit from the chaos. "What do you propose to do now?" Lady Morgain asked, breaking the silence. Lord Baelthon straightened, his political experience taking control of the situation. "For the moment, we’re going to stop the meetings," he declared firmly. "We’re going to maintain a low profile." "Why?" Lord Caelum asked. "Because it’s not time to look antagonistic," Lady Daphina explained. "Not while the king is in the castle with new a power and a new army of loyal doubles." "The only thing we can do," Lord Baelthon continued, "is support royal initiatives as much as possible and try to obtain something from the great wealth they seem to have found." "The second chamber," Lady Morgain murmured, her eyes gleaming with the only hope they had left. "Exactly," Lord Baelthon nodded. "That wealth was to be divided among the four families according to ancient agreements. If we can position ourselves as legitimate representatives of those interests..." "We could recover some political relevance," Lord Aldric completed, immediately understanding the strategy. "Then we’re agreed," Lady Daphina declared. "We suspend meetings, adopt a stance of total public support for the king, and focus on legal rights over the distribution of the second chamber’s wealth." Murmurs of agreement filled the room, though the atmosphere remained charged with frustration over missed opportunities. "And we wait," Lord Baelthon added, "for our patience to be rewarded when the dust settles." ♢♢♢♢ Ren was in the backyard of his new house, enjoying the view that had been impossible to imagine in his old dwelling. The construction wasn’t very large, just four bedrooms... 10 adding the kitchen, 2 bathrooms, the living room, etc... but the yard was considerably ample, enough for training, cultivating, and even for his parents to experiment with culinary techniques if they decided to venture in that direction in their new life. A few days had passed since the events at the castle, and with everything that had occurred, school hadn’t restarted. The administrators had decided students would return a month later than normal, since some important things were missing to be resolved in the post-war period. "Many of our neighbors have been integrated into the new excavation system," Ren explained to his parents while observing through the fence toward the surrounding houses. The transformation in the quality of their new neighborhood had been dramatic. Where before there had been families struggling economically, now there were specialized workers with stable incomes from the crystal extraction project. "But several weren’t very suitable for it," Ren continued, "because of the required mana levels or the necessary physical efficiency." His father, Reed, nodded understandingly. "It’s intensive work," he observed, remembering his own youthful experiences with demanding physical jobs. "And not everyone is prepared to handle the mana concentrations that deep excavation requires." "Exactly," Ren agreed. "That’s why Larissa told me I could hire some to support our new house." The suggestion created an uncomfortable pause in the conversation. His mother, Fern, exchanged a glance with Reed, both processing the implications of having domestic employees. "Ren," Fern said carefully, "we’ve always done our own things. Cooking, cleaning, maintaining the house... it’s almost the only thing we know how to do." "And we like doing it," Reed added, though his tone suggested he was considering his son’s arguments. The resistance wasn’t surprising. For people who had built their identity around self-sufficiency and taking pride in managing their own household, the idea of hired help represented a fundamental shift in how they saw themselves. Ren had anticipated this resistance and had prepared his arguments carefully. "But that way you’d have more time to try new cooking," he insisted. "In case you want to open a restaurant within the city." The mention of their own restaurant created another pause, this time filled with dreams they had kept secret for years.

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