The significance of names.
The chains of lineage.
The unspoken war in the halls of nobility.
Judio never cared for such things. He was born in the dust of a fallen village, raised in the harsh light of struggles for survival, and hardened by the echoes of screams that once filled the air.
Bloodline meant nothing when monsters tore through the land, when hunger clawed at your ribs, when death loomed over your shoulder like a silent specter.
But here, within the polished halls of the Union Academy of Sandigsal, blood was everything.
And the whispers spread like a plague.
Polished oak surrounded him. Thick tomes stacked around his table blurred before his eyes as he truly listened.
Between the rustling of pages and the scribbling of quills, the voices slithered through the air.
"I heard they grew up in a slum."
"No, no—one of them might have noble blood, but the other? A bastard, through and through."