Weakest Beast Tamer Gets All SSS Dragons novel Chapter 934

Chapter 934: Chapter 934 - Taming the Bird’s Pain

It was an improvement transforming the situation from desperation to difficult but potentially surmountable challenge.

He was alive... That was a victory already.

Everything else was just details to be managed.

The prince looked at Selphira intently and she saw his mouth opening slowly as the healing was finishing.

Victor’s first word wasn’t a question or complaint.

It was...

"Sorry."

His voice was barely a whisper. Hoarse and damaged but unmistakably sincere.

"I’m sorry," he repeated, stronger this time. "I’m so sorry. I..." He broke off coughing. Blood flecking his lips. The crystals in his throat making speech painful. But he pushed through it. "I... I failed again. I was stupid, I..."

"Hush," Selphira said, but gently... Without the harshness that usually characterized their communications. "Save your strength."

"No." Victor’s hand, the one that wasn’t fully-crystallized, reached up to grasp her arm.

Weak grip... But insistent.

"I wanted to prove myself."

The words came in a rush now. "To Father, to the kingdom... to myself. I’m the oldest prince yet never adequate as my father’s replacement, never excellent... Never terrible. Just eternally, frustratingly mediocre."

His voice cracked not from his horrible pain... From something deeper.

Selphira felt something twist in her chest. Pity and guilt as she’d thought of him exactly that way.

"I thought if I could be useful," Victor continued, voice dropping to whisper again.

He laughed... Bitter sound that turned into cough again. "Stupid, right? I was so desperate to prove I... Turns out I was just being a fool. Again... Like always."

"Victor..."

Selphira grabbed his face with both hands. Forcing him to look at her, see her eyes. To understand that she was actually listening rather than just waiting for him to finish.

"You are not a fool," she said with conviction. "You are not useless. You are Victor... My student, my responsibility, my family... You were just unlucky. And also you are loved not because of what you might someday be useful for but because you are ours."

"I’m also foolish for being here with you," she admitted honestly, not trying to hide behind professional bravado. "But I wouldn’t have done it any differently, regardless of the consequences."

It was a statement that communicated exactly how much she valued Victor, despite the frustrations his behavior had caused over years of their complex interactions.

Victor’s eyes widened. Like he’d been struck, since he’d never believe he would hear those words from ’that’ strict Selphira before today.

Maybe he hadn’t... He was dreaming.

"But I..."

"You won’t be able to push the beam if you fight it with your own mana. It needs to be pushed with a lot of strength, physically."

"I may not look as big as you young man but I’m also strong..."

"I won’t let you die here," Victor interrupted. Voice steady now despite the earlier tears, despite the pain... Despite everything. "We’ll use my crystal arm as our shield."

"You’re in no condition to..."

"I know." Grim smile. "But I’ll still have one good arm. Let me finally do something that counts."

Selphira wanted to argue but she saw it in his eyes. The determination... The need not to prove himself to her but to prove himself to himself.

And who was she to deny him that? She’d just told him he wasn’t useless.

"Fine," she said. "But you follow my lead. Don’t take stupid risks and don’t try to be a hero. You contribute what you can safely contribute and no more. Understood?"

"Understood." He smiled, a real big smile this time. "Thank you, for coming... For everything, for..."

"For what any good teacher does for her students." Selphira stood, helping him up. "Now let’s show these bastards why it’s a mistake to trap the two members of the Ashenway family in confined spaces."

"I’m not Ashenway..."

"You are now, little bird. You got yourself saved by the old lady that adopts pitiful kids from the roads earning a place in a family that mostly chooses its members rather than inheriting them... Welcome, sing something to me later."

Victor’s eyes widened. Then filled with tears again... But different, not despair, not shame... But gratitude.