Weakest Beast Tamer Gets All SSS Dragons novel Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Chapter 4 - Taming Hope

They had dreamed of something better for Ren.

But with a spore...

"Eight years," the father sank into his chair. "Eight years watching others evolve their beasts while he... while our foolish investment takes away his hope for..."

He didn't need to finish the sentence. A spore couldn't evolve its rank.

There were no cultivation techniques to study, no improvement paths to explore, no secret techniques to buy.

Many had already tried.

Richer people with much more support.

The only one who succeeded...

Was labeled as the worst failure. A fortune spent for an almost useless gain, 20% strength.

Since that day, the spore has been the symbol of failure.

Ren would spend eight years learning things he could never apply, his surroundings a constant reminder of what he couldn't achieve.

Eight years of mockery, being the school's laughingstock. _{freeweɓnøvel.com}

Eight wasted years, because what could he learn about cultivation and evolution with a creature that couldn't even evolve?

Sadness led the father to reminisce about the past, a past that Ren had illuminated...

"Remember that day?" he asked suddenly, his gaze lost in the candle flames.

"When I couldn't find the medicine demanded by the kingdom because it was depleted due to severe mana contamination from that year's horde, and I had to go out searching for a mana poisoning cure and also found that plant you ate... We thought we had been blessed."

She nodded, taking his hand.

How could she forget?

They had been trying to have a child since their twenties.

Almost three decades of broken hopes, watching their friends form families while they remained alone.

They had lived a frugal life, pooling their resources to form a happy family, interested only in one thing they couldn't obtain no matter how much they accumulated.

Almost a million, an incredible amount for citizens of their rank.

They'd thought about using the money to "cure" their infertility but they were already so old... They had given up.

But that trip to the outskirts...

"The plant I found in the outskirts, mistaking it for that high-quality 100-year-old sweet root..." he continued. "When you ate it, I thought... I thought I had killed you. You were so pale, so cold..."

"And a week later, I felt like I was twenty again," she smiled sadly. "And the following year we succeeded without trying..."

"Our miracle."

They fell silent, listening to the muffled sobs coming from Ren's room.

Their little miracle, the child who had given them so much life and happiness when they had almost lost hope, now faced a cruel destiny.

"It's as if the dragon gods were mocking us," she murmured. "They gave us a child when we were already too old, only to..."

"To watch him suffer," he completed, squeezing her hand.

The candles, almost spent, continued burning, their flames reflecting on the school contract on the table.

In the adjacent room, their ten-year-old son cried silently, a small gray spore floating beside his pillow like a constant reminder of his fate.

The feast they had prepared with so much love slowly cooled on the table, untouched, while two elderly parents wept for the cruel turn their life's miracle had taken.

♢♢♢♢

Ren lay on his bed, tears drying on his cheeks while rage gradually replaced sadness.