Chapter 12 – The Path of the Forsaken

The banquet was over, but its aftermath clung to me like a heavy shroud. The once-lively halls of my family's estate felt suffocating, each corridor filled with whispers that I could no longer ignore.

"What a disgrace."

"Lord Aldric's son? More like a failure."

"Did you see the way the academies ignored him? Even the servants pity him."

I clenched my fists as I walked, my footsteps echoing in the cold silence. My father hadn't said a word to me since the banquet. He didn't need to. His silence cut deeper than any insult ever could. Leonard, on the other hand, had wasted no time in making his stance clear.

"You should get used to it," he had said, his voice devoid of sympathy. "Weaklings have no place among us."

I could have ignored the murmurs of outsiders. I could have endured the looks of the nobles and the mockery of my peers. But my own family? Even the people I had grown up with had begun treating me differently. My very existence was now an inconvenience.

I needed to get out.

The Escape

That night, I made my decision.

I had no plan, no destination—only the certainty that I could no longer stay. If I remained in this house, I would rot away, buried under their expectations and disappointment.

Dressed in dark, lightweight clothing, I slipped through the halls like a shadow. The estate was heavily guarded, not just for security but to prevent disgraced family members from tarnishing the noble name by running away. But I knew this place better than anyone. Every hidden passage, every blind spot in the patrols—I had memorized them all.

My heart pounded as I reached the outer wall. The guards were stationed at regular intervals, their torches flickering against the night breeze. I crouched behind a stack of wooden crates, waiting for the exact moment when the guards switched positions.

"Just a few more seconds..."

I took a deep breath and made my move.

Silent steps, controlled breathing—I had no room for mistakes. The shadows were my only allies as I reached the farthest corner of the estate, where the wall was lower than the rest. With a surge of desperation, I scaled it, my fingers gripping the cold stone as I hoisted myself over.

For the first time in my life, I was outside my family's walls. Alone.

I didn't look back.

The First Night of Freedom

The air outside was different—crisper, wilder, unchained from the suffocating walls of nobility. The estate sat on the outskirts of a vast city, and beyond it lay uncharted roads leading into the unknown.

I walked without direction, my feet carrying me into the lower districts of the city, where the nobility rarely ventured. The streets were filled with drunken laughter, shady figures exchanging goods, and beggars who had long been forgotten by the world. It was a place where status meant nothing, where only strength determined one's worth.

Perfect.

I found an abandoned corner in a back alley and sat against the wall, exhaustion creeping in. My entire body ached, but my mind was clearer than it had been in years. For the first time in my life, I was free.

But freedom came with a price.

I had no food, no money, and no plan. My trait, Adaptive Resonance, was still a mystery, and I had no training to survive in the outside world. If I was to prove them all wrong, I needed to start from nothing and become something they could never ignore.

A cold wind swept through the streets, but I didn't shiver. I welcomed it.

Because this was the first step toward my true awakening.