Chapter 0.128 Flashback the shadow in his heart
The next morning, Nox Leonhardt did not show up for breakfast.
The servants assumed he was training. His mother did not ask. His father did not notice. Leona, glowing from her morning sparring match and her father's approval, did not think twice.
No one came to his room.
No one knocked.
And so, no one saw what had begun to change within him.
Nox stood before the mirror in silence.
His eyes—once the same radiant blue as Leona's—looked duller now.
Not from fatigue.
From silence.
From solitude.
He looked at his hands, still scarred from last night's training, and whispered softly:
**"No more."**
---
That day, he wandered into the estate's forbidden library—the one locked behind enchanted steel doors.
He should not have had access.
But the security spells did not react.
The darkness inside was ancient. Heavy.
It welcomed him.
Dust rose from the floors as he stepped through corridors of forbidden knowledge, arcane bindings, and old, cursed tomes sealed with divine runes.
There, tucked behind a veil of shadow, he found it.
**A black book with no title.**
Bound in a leather that was neither human nor beast. Its surface pulsed faintly, like a heart.
When Nox touched it, the room fell silent.
His breath caught.
The whispers returned.
**"We see you."**
**"We know your name."**
**"We know your pain."**
His fingers trembled, but he didn't pull away.
Not this time.
He opened the book.
---
What he read inside was not just forbidden magic.
It was **liberation.**
Techniques that did not rely on lineage.
Power that did not require parental approval.
Strength not earned by favor or divine blessing, but by sheer will.
By anger.
By despair.
**By pain.**
At night, he began practicing in secret.
Not swordplay—something deeper. Something twisted.
He called mana not from the air, but from his own suffering.
He didn't glow like Leona.
He bled.
He burned.
And with each wound, the book taught him to survive.
To endure.
To grow.
---
His muscles began to strengthen.
His mind became sharper.
His mana—once pale blue like his sister's—turned smoky, with streaks of grey and black.
It did not sparkle. It pulsed.
Some nights, he cried. Not from pain, but from guilt.
He remembered Leona's laugh, her gentle smile. He remembered when they trained together.
When she would fall and he'd help her up.
When she called him **"Big Brother"** with such innocence.
But every time he tried to hold onto that memory, another one rose to crush it:
His father's eyes ignoring him.
His mother's back turned.
The applause.
The pride.
The cheers for Leona—never for him.
He could not compete with a blessed child.
So he stopped trying.
He would not be the sun.
He would become the shadow.
---
One night, he stood outside the family hall, watching from a dark corridor as his family celebrated Leona's invitation to the Royal Sword Tournament.
She wore a new uniform, gifted by the capital.
Their parents beamed with pride.
Servants brought wine and music.
And in that moment, the last of Nox's childhood broke.
He did not cry.
He did not whisper.
He turned and walked away. Quiet. Straight-backed. Eyes forward.
In his chest, the shadow purred.
---
When Leona returned to her room that night, she found a gift on her bed.
A beautiful hairpin, silver and blue—elegant, refined.
There was no note.
No name.
But she smiled and wore it proudly.
She never knew it was from Nox.
Not until years later, when it broke.
And the cursed rune inside whispered,
**"Finally."**
---
Heat: Here we must remember what Jin said when he said that evil people are not born, they are made.
Question: What would be Jin's reaction and how would he act if he knew nox's life story and past and why he became evil? Would he understand or hate him?. Tell me the answer in the comments section.