Chapter 25: Night Resonance
The headmaster’s attempt to keep Jeryon’s successful resonance a secret had almost completely failed.
By the time the afternoon classes began, the news had already reached the Royal Family’s secretary’s office.
At five o’clock, just before the workday ended, the secretary reported the news to the king.
"Observe Jeryon’s condition. Make a list of the top first-year students who could become his potential partners."
"If nothing unusual happens within the next twenty-four hours, contact the families of the students on that list," the king ordered calmly, as though he were simply deciding what to have for dinner.
The secretary nodded and promptly left to carry out his orders.
Meanwhile, back at Feline Tower, Shani and Jeryon had just finished their resonance session, completely unaware that their partnership was already in danger.
"Let’s meet here again at six?" Shani asked the prince.
Jeryon nodded and could only watch as Shani walked away with cheerful, lighthearted steps.
He checked the panel on their desk to see their progress. Everything looked stable, and he nodded to himself in satisfaction.
His attention shifted when he noticed several classmates approaching him out of the corner of his eye. Three girls and two boys.
He recognized one of the girls as someone who had openly dismissed Shani earlier.
"Prince Jeryon, we’d like to talk..."
Without waiting to hear the rest, Jeryon turned around and walked away.
Even though he still had five empty baby beast slots, he would never choose partners with personalities like theirs.
Besides, all he wanted to focus on now was his and Shani’s baby beast.
...
Shani only had one hour to shower and eat dinner before returning to the classroom.
Before leaving, she checked her baby beast’s progress through the system.
[Baby Beast Progress: 29.8% (Egg Phase). Progress Speed: 5%/hour. Baby Beast Gene: Feline 50%, Marine 40%, Avian 10%. Regulation Process: Stable.]
"So Jeryon’s mother is a marine beastman? But isn’t the Queen of Argenor a feline beastman?" Shani murmured.
A few seconds later, realization struck her. "So the current queen isn’t his biological mother..."
She imagined what it must be like to carry the title of the Cursed Prince while having no one by your side.
"Even as a prince... his life isn’t easy."
Feeling sympathy for him, Shani greeted him with her brightest smile when they met again in the classroom.
Jeryon, completely misunderstanding her intentions, immediately blushed.
To him, even though the classroom lighting was perfectly even, Shani’s face seemed to shine all on its own.
Not even the most beautiful noble girls had ever made him feel this way. What Jeryon didn’t realize was that his own eyes were wearing the filter.
Although his heart continued pounding, he still managed to regulate his energy steadily.
The two of them spent another three hours practicing before finally stopping, since first-year students weren’t allowed to remain outside their dormitories after nine at night.
Even so, Shani was thrilled because their baby beast’s progress had already reached 45%.
She walked over to Jeryon and raised her hand, inviting him to high-five her.
But the prince, who had been raised under rigid royal etiquette since childhood, had no idea what she meant.
Awkwardly, he took Shani’s hand and lowered it into a formal handshake.
"Pwahahaha!" Shani burst into laughter. "I wanted a high-five. You didn’t know?"
She let go of his hand, raised Jeryon’s palm beside his handsome face, then slapped it lightly with her own.
Jeryon’s face instantly turned bright red.
"I know... what a high-five is." He did know. He just wasn’t used to it. No one had ever high-fived him before.
Shani wiped away the tears forming at the corners of her eyes. The situation was hilarious and just a little sad.
"What about this? Do you know this one?" She made a fist and held it out.
Jeryon stared at it for a long moment, his brows furrowing as though solving a difficult exam question.
"That’s..." He slowly extended his arm until it crossed Shani’s. "An... X?"
Shani froze in disbelief before doubling over with laughter, clutching her stomach. "You really don’t know!"
Jeryon clenched his jaw, desperately holding back the embarrassment threatening to consume him.
He wanted to run away. But fleeing would hurt his pride even more.
Eventually, Shani calmed down, secretly admiring how stubbornly he endured the awkwardness.
She gently positioned Jeryon’s hand into a fist, then bumped it with her own. "It’s called a fist bump."
"I know what a fist bump is. It’s just... your pose earlier didn’t look..." Jeryon sighed. "Never mind. We should head back."
He had wanted to explain himself, but the moment he saw Shani looking at him with genuine curiosity, his thoughts scattered.
Shani decided not to tease him anymore. "I know. You just misunderstood."
Walking ahead of her, Jeryon merely responded with a quiet hum, still too embarrassed to say anything else.
Outside Class 1, Kiran was waiting for Shani.
She greeted Jeryon politely, then fell completely silent, though her eyes kept sneaking glances at his striking golden hair during the elevator ride.
Jeryon’s room happened to be Room 1, so Kiran didn’t have to endure his intimidating presence for long.
"Let’s continue thirty minutes before lunch tomorrow," Shani said before Jeryon closed his door.
"How can you act so normally around the prince?" Kiran asked, instantly returning to her usual chatty self. "I’d be terrified of saying the wrong thing and getting executed."
Shani almost laughed.
But after thinking about it, Jeryon really was a member of the royal family. Something like that might actually happen if someone seriously offended him.
Then she suddenly remembered how she’d laughed until the prince’s face turned bright red.
’I hope he’s not the type to hold grudges.’
After returning to her room and changing clothes, Shani planned to study for tomorrow’s classes.
However, her body was much more exhausted than she’d realized. She fell asleep before she could even finish reading a single page.
The next morning, Shani woke up feeling frustrated by how weak her body was.
There was no denying it. She was only an F-Rank.
...