The Shamed Bastard Son Who Tamed a Forbidden Angel

Chapter 6: The Challenge Accepted

John's anger transformed into triumph. He threw his head back and laughed. "You hear that, cousin? Oh wait—you're not my cousin anymore, are you? You're just... nobody. Nobody going nowhere with nothing."

"The academy exam is tomorrow," Victor added, his voice heavy with satisfaction. "John will pass with flying colors. And you? You won't even be allowed through the gate. They have standards, after all. They don't let sewer rats into paradise."

The crowd murmured agreement. Several people were already congratulating John, praising the Klein family's good fortune.

But Harry's expression remained eerily calm. The system panel still floated in his vision, invisible to everyone else. The words "IMMORTAL RANK" seemed to pulse with each heartbeat.

"I'll be taking the exam," Harry said quietly.

The plaza fell silent.

"What?" John sputtered.

"Tomorrow's entrance exam," Harry repeated, louder this time. "I'll be there. I'm going to enter the Imperial Royal Beast Academy."

For a moment, nobody spoke. Then the laughter started—first John, then Victor, then the entire crowd. It rolled over Harry in waves, mocking and cruel.

"You?!" John could barely breathe through his laughter. "You're going to take the exam?! With that?!" He pointed at Rose, wiping tears from his eyes. "Oh god, this is perfect! Please do! Please show up! I want to watch them throw you out on your ass! I want to see your face when they tell you to stop wasting their time!"

"The boy's delusional," someone in the crowd said.

"Brain damaged from all those years in the cellar," another agreed.

Elder Margaret just smiled, cold and confident. "By all means, attend. Humiliate yourself one final time. It'll be a fitting end to your pathetic story."

Harry didn't respond. He simply turned, taking Rose's hand gently. "Come on. We need to go."

"W-where?" she whispered, confused and frightened by the crowd's reaction.

"Shopping," Harry said simply.

He walked through the parting crowd, ignoring the jeers and laughter. Rose hurried beside him, her small legs struggling to keep pace. Behind them, John's voice rang out, basking in praise and congratulations.

"Did you see his face?!"

"John, my boy, you'll make us so proud at the academy!"

"The Klein family's star is rising!"

Their voices faded as Harry and Rose left the plaza. The girl looked up at him, confusion written across her tear-stained face.

"Master, why did you tell them you'd take the exam? I don't understand. I'm... I'm not strong enough to help you pass. I can't even fly. I don't have any powers. They're right—I'm useless. You'll fail because of me, and then everyone will laugh even more."

"You're not useless," Harry said firmly. They turned down a narrow street, away from the main thoroughfare. "Trust me, Rose. By tomorrow, everything changes."

"But how? I don't—"

"Do you trust me?"

She blinked up at him, startled by the question. Nobody had ever asked her that before. In her short existence, nobody had asked her anything.

"I... yes," she whispered. "Yes, I trust you, Master."

"Good. Then just hold on a little longer."

They walked through the winding streets of the city's merchant quarter. Most of the shops here catered to beast tamers—selling equipment, food supplements, training manuals, and herbs. Harry had passed these shops countless times during his years of servitude, running errands for the Klein family. He'd never been allowed to enter.

Now, he pushed open the door of "Morrison's Beast Emporium," a modest shop with dusty windows and faded paint.

A bell chimed overhead. The interior smelled of dried herbs and old leather. Shelves lined every wall, crammed with bottles, pouches, and mysterious containers. Behind the counter stood an elderly man with wild gray hair and spectacles that magnified his eyes to comical proportions.

"Help you?" the man—Morrison, presumably—asked without much interest.

"Holy Light Grass," Harry said. "Do you have any?"

Morrison snorted. "Holy Light Grass? That basic stuff? Got plenty. Nobody buys it anymore—too common, too weak. Most tamers want the exotic imports, the rare finds." He shuffled to a back shelf and returned with a small pouch containing dried yellow-white grass that glowed faintly. "Five denars."

Five denars. Practically nothing. The "compensation" Elder Margaret had given him was ten thousand—he could buy two thousand bundles of this grass if he wanted.

Harry pulled out a handful of coins from his pocket—the small wages he'd secretly saved over years of servitude, hidden from the Klein family. Barely fifty denars total.

"I'll take it," Harry said, counting out five coins.

Morrison bagged the herb without ceremony. "You're wasting your money, kid. This stuff is only good for minor light-affinity beasts at Common rank or below. If you're trying to boost anything decent, you need at least Silver Moon Petals, and those run five hundred denars minimum."

"This will do," Harry said, taking the pouch.

Morrison shrugged. "Your money to waste."

They left the shop. Evening was falling now, painting the sky in shades of orange and purple. Rose walked silently beside Harry, her eyes fixed on the small pouch he carried.

"Master," she said hesitantly. "That herb... it won't help me. I'm too... too broken. My power is all wrong. Dark and light fighting inside me. A simple herb can't—"

"It's exactly what you need," Harry interrupted gently. He led her to a small, quiet alley away from prying eyes. Kneeling down to her level, he opened the pouch. "The system showed me, Rose. Your problem isn't that you're weak—it's that you're unbalanced. Too much darkness, not enough light. This herb will fix that."