Chapter 0.127 Flashback – The Leonhardt Family 3
Forgotten Son
The days after the duel passed like fog.
Each morning, Nox Leonhardt woke in silence. No knocks on his door. No smiles waiting for him at breakfast. No warmth.
Only routine.
He dressed himself. Ate alone. Trained alone. Fought alone.
His father, Charles, once proud of his son's sword form, now observed only Leona.
His mother, Marguerite, who used to hold both her children close, now kept her arms for one.
And it was never him.
The estate was large—sprawling gardens, towering halls—but Nox felt as if he lived in a cage.
Not of stone.
But of absence.
No matter how hard he trained, how much he improved, the praise never came.
Leona, meanwhile, was rising like the morning sun—shining, untouchable.
Every week, she mastered a new technique.
Every duel, she won.
Every gathering, she stood beside their father, his hand resting on her shoulder, declaring proudly,
**"This is my daughter—the pride of the Leonhardt bloodline."**
And Nox?
He stood in the shadows. Clapping.
Watching.
Swallowing every burning shard of envy that twisted in his chest.
---
He told himself it was fine.
That it wasn't Leona's fault. That he was just… overreacting.
But then came the private lessons.
The master swordsmen who once trained him now trained only Leona.
The family banquet where his name wasn't on the guest list.
The day their mother gifted Leona a blade of ancestral silver—**"A symbol of your future,"** she had said, **"the future of our family."**
Nox stood in the hallway that day, just behind the doorframe, listening.
Watching the smile on Leona's face.
Watching their mother's eyes shine with love and pride.
And realizing no one noticed he was there.
---
It started that night.
The voice.
No… not a voice exactly—more like a whisper of thought. Something crawling at the edges of his mind.
**"They will never see you."**
**"You are not meant to shine beside her… but to stand behind her shadow."**
**"Unless…"**
He clenched his fists beneath the moonlight in his room.
**"Unless you take it back."**
Nox shook his head, whispering to himself.
**"No. I'm not… like that. I don't hate her."**
But he did.
A little more each day.
---
He tried to fight it.
He trained harder. Spent hours bleeding beneath the weight of iron.
He meditated. Tried to still his mind.
But when he saw Leona walk past the guards and the staff bowing to her,
When he saw how she stood beside their father at every public event,
When he heard their mother laugh in a way she hadn't with him in years—
He couldn't stop the feeling from growing.
**"Why not me?"**
The boy who once loved his sister more than anyone now couldn't look at her without feeling something awful…
…something feral and cold.
**Jealousy.**
**Resentment.**
**Loathing.**
---
One night, alone in the forest clearing behind the estate, Nox trained until his hands bled.
Each swing of the blade was a question.
Each cry into the wind was a wound reopening.
He collapsed to his knees, the moonlight painting silver tears down his cheeks.
**"What's wrong with me?"**
He dug his fingers into the earth.
**"Why can't I be enough?"**
Then, in the silence, something within him responded. Not in words.
But in warmth.
No—**in cold.**
A numb, pulsing presence wrapped around his heart like a vine.
It wasn't mana.
It wasn't divine.
It was **emptiness.**
**"Let me in."**
It didn't sound like a monster.
It sounded like him.
The part of him that no longer wanted to feel pain.
That no longer cared about being loved.
That only wanted to be **seen**.
---
Back in the manor, Leona was laughing at the dinner table.
Marguerite was cutting pieces of fruit for her daughter, brushing her hair aside fondly.
Charles was discussing new training methods, promising her a trip to the royal capital.
They never asked where Nox was.
They never noticed the missing seat at the table.
They never heard the forest scream that night.
---
Heat: Here the difference between the Rotschy family and the Leonhardt family appears
1- Naoko is a harsh, emotionless mother, but she cares for her children in her own special way. Read about Jin's past and how he talked to Rena about Naoko, and you will know the difference.
2- At Jin and Rena's wedding, Naoko was watching Amelia when her son Jin was joking with Amelia, ready to intervene if Amelia tried to hurt Jin because of Jin's joke.