"Double or nothing," Julius confirmed with a smile that carried both amusement and satisfaction. "The nobles are desperate, Ren. Your crushing display in the mid-year exams terrified them."

Selphira nodded, her expression becoming more serious. "They saw what you achieved. Three first places with margins that made their own heirs look like less than mediocre students. And more importantly, they saw how much power you've acquired even without the rewards you are fighting to keep."

"Resources, connections, loyalties," Julius enumerated, counting on his fingers. "In record time, you built a power base that takes the most powerful nobles decades to establish. And you're still growing."

"They got scared," Selphira said simply. "Thinking about the enormous obstacle you'd represent later if they let a 'successor' be born, a 'new Dragarion'. So they put all their eggs in this, the last basket."

"They came to us," Julius grimaced at the memory, distaste evident in his expression. "With a proposal. They wanted to change some rules of the final exams. Make them more 'challenging' for students 'with luck' to give everyone 'fair opportunities'."

"And they wagered a lot," Selphira leaned forward, her smile returning with predatory satisfaction. "They said if the boy still finished first in everything despite their changes, they'd accept to double their debt… And 'give him more prizes' as compensation for the additional challenge."

Julius grabbed his forehead as if remembering something particularly painful, the gesture a bit theatrical but genuine. "Baelthon was the one who led them. Pushed all the others, despite Aldric begging him to reconsider."

"Like a complete gambling addict," Selphira smiled widely now, the expression of someone watching a trap close perfectly on a valuable prey, "he dug his own grave. Because I trust one hundred percent that for you… the new rules will matter very little. They think they know your limits but they still don't."

There was a moment of silence while Ren processed all this, the implications spreading through his mind like ripples in stagnant water.

Then he sighed, long and tired.

"Then I hope Aldric's girls are saved as agreed," he said finally, bringing the conversation back to practical matters. "As long as they keep giving useful information until the end of those nobles..."

Those nobles whose house names and details he still hadn't finished learning.

"It will be done," Julius confirmed with the certainty of someone who always kept his promises.

"And I hope as a reward they give me more money and not more territory," Ren continued, his tone becoming firmer as he laid out his preferences. "Therefore, no more work. I have too much territory already and don't want even one more centimeter."

"Oh, but Liora can help you manage afterward, so don't worry..." Selphira winked at him, her smile becoming mischievous.

Ren turned red.

Julius coughed loudly, looking at Ren with an expression that clearly said 'player' in the most accusatory way possible. Still…

"Or Larissa," he added, his tone deliberately casual but eyes sharp.

"I'm not..." Ren began, moving his hands defensively as if he could physically ward off the implications.

"Remember," Julius interrupted him, his voice taking on a tone of serious advice mixed with amusement and a bit of warning. "Chew, don't bite off more than you can handle."

Selphira let out a laugh that echoed through the room.

"Why couldn't a big, imposing dragon chew two or three young ladies?" she asked, her tone completely innocent but her eyes dancing with humor that belied the innocence.

Julius choked on his own saliva. Ren did too, sputtering in shock.

"I myself chewed two," Selphira continued as if she were discussing the weather, casual in a way that made the statement even more shocking. "Separately, of course."

She stopped, frowning slightly as if trying to remember something from the distant past.

"Or I don't remember well," she murmured, more to herself than the others. "Youth can be more jealous and possessive... More greedy with that than I remember. Though I don't remember very well how it worked at that age."

"Selphira..." Julius began, his voice strangled with a bit of embarrassment and disbelief.

"But I'm sure," she returned her attention to Ren, ignoring Julius completely, "that you'll find a way to 'keep everyone happy' with your decisions."

Julius didn't look very convinced. His expression suggested he was reconsidering all his life decisions that had led him to this exact moment.

But when he saw Ren even more troubled than himself, he sighed and scratched his head. In the end he was a teenager despite everything and they themselves were perhaps putting too much on his shoulders. They could leave that aside for now…

"We trust that the changes can't stop you," Julius said finally, recovering some composure and a smile. "The nobles keep thinking with old minds and ideas. They don't understand what they're really facing."

"So don't worry about the exams," Selphira added, her confidence absolute and infectious. "Win like always. Take their money… And watch as their plans crumble."

"Exactly," Julius straightened, heading toward the door. Then he stopped, looking at Ren over his shoulder with expression that shifted from casual to serious. "Though outside of that, you'd better not make Larissa cry."

"What? I'm not..."

"I mean afterward," Julius interrupted him, his smile still maintained but his tone becoming completely serious for a moment. "When you have to make decisions. When you choose more permanent alliances. Whoever you choose..."

"I agree... Don't unnecessarily hurt those who follow and wait for you," Selphira completed softly, her previous humor vanished into genuine concern. "That's the only real wish I have."

They opened the door, and the sound of Selphira's laughter floated back as they left.

"Although two or three isn't impossible! It just requires lots of communication and Vitality!"

"Selphira, for the love of..."

"What? It's true! In my times..."

Their voices faded down the corridor, the argument continuing into distance until silence returned.

Ren remained standing, feeling like he'd just survived a tornado.

They really trusted him. To wager so many crystals on him, to say that type of thing and be so informal when seeing him lately.

"I'm not sure if that's good or bad," Ren admitted to the empty room.

Both… Definitely both.

The nobles had bet against him.

Double or nothing.

Changes designed specifically to stop him.

And Selphira and Julius were so sure of his victory that they'd basically given him permission to take the nobles' money and laugh while doing it.

No pressure at all.

None.

Ren rubbed his face, feeling the weight of expectations settle onto his shoulders.

But beneath that...

Beneath the pressure and stress and responsibility...

There was something else.

Determination.

Because if the nobles wanted to bet against him...

If they wanted to put all their eggs in one basket...

If they wanted to dig their own graves with such confidence...

Then Ren would give them exactly what they wagered they wouldn't get.

A defeat so complete they'd never underestimate him again.

The final exams he wouldn't just pass.

He'd dominate them, like everything else.

And when the nobles realized their mistake...

Well, it would be too late to retract the wager.

Double debt.

Double resources.

And the satisfaction of seeing their faces when they understood they'd played exactly as Selphira and Julius had predicted.

Ren smiled.

Let the exams come.

He was ready.

Surprises designed specifically for him.

It would be interesting.

For the first time, maybe the exams really could give him challenges.

"Good," he said finally, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "Let's see what they have prepared."

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