Percival Lance was the black sheep of the Lance family. He couldn't use the powerful Magic like his elder sister Camille who could manipulate the forces of gravity or the elements to his whim. He couldn't wield the legendary claymore sword named Sequence or use Sword Arts like his younger brother Gawain. Nor was he allowed to be under the careful eyes of his caring youngest brother Arthur who could have taken him on Quests in Dungeons.
Percival had not activated the System even after hitting twenty-five years old. He was weak compared to other nobles who could gain riches and power beyond most in the world. He was mocked and degraded by other nobles his age. His town considered him a failure.
The only thing that made him unique to others was the fact that he had red eyes. That and his infamy.
His parents hated him.
For good reason though. He did nothing but read in their library and do minor things to take care of himself like hygiene care. He rarely talked to them or communicated with the anyone under their care besides his siblings. When he did, he would blunder through conversations with both commoners and nobles alike with a stutter on his lips.
Without his siblings he would have provoked battles, honor duels, broken contracts, destroyed their wealth and position, he would have even shattered lifelong alliances between families.
He was infamous for his knowledge that he hoarded. He discussed only with his siblings how to raise Levels or find new techniques that would be compatible to their Systems. He never went out of his way to talk to his parents or try to do anything to increase his standing among nobles. The only thing that ever caught his interest was knowledge he hadn't heard of. Even then he could barely communicate without stumbling over words.
It did not help that he always made time for his siblings and how quickly they became famous even before they gained a System while he never gained anything.
Camille Lance. The Emerald Witch. A beautiful woman at twenty-five who had suitors lining up for her hand. A lady who dressed in stunning green and spells that glowed with a green hue. Eyes like emeralds that shined with an emerald fire or a stone-cold silence. Black smooth long hair that went down to the middle of her back.
She was the one that protected him when he aggravated a Duke that was getting ready to call his men to battle by calling him an uneducated buffoon due to his lack of knowledge about Magic. Camille had made a truce with the Duke that she would teach the man about Magic in order to spar her foolish brother. She had also protected him when he ripped apart a marriage contract apart for his youngest brother by getting him to apologize to a young Countess who was distraught at the expensive paper being destroyed by forcefully making him tutor the young woman.
There was Gawain with dyed red hair who shot out into red messy spikes and built with lean, powerful muscles. He had blue eyes that were always filled with passion. The Crimson Sword. He defended his brother after he had accidentally spilled a drink on a Viscountess who had a Viscount come to her aid and called out for an honor duel. Gawain had quickly stopped it by helping the woman.
Arthur though, was the most famous. The Silver Rogue. His charisma dripped out from him easily and he ensnared people with his words. He was the one that stopped a King from destroying a lifelong truce with their family. He also stopped his brother from gambling away the family fortune with a Duke. He fought assassin that attacked during a ball. Arthur had fought an honor duel to the death due to someone badmouthing his eldest brother. He had even decimated a bandit tribe that had kidnapped his brother for ransom.
Arthur was a shining blonde with messy hair. His green eyes were usually a greenish blue that shinned with a mischievous glint in them. He was tall and muscular that could easily be seen. His pale skin would tan lightly, and he was the white sheep of the family. Almost everyone instantly liked him.
Then there was Percival. The eldest son of Baron Dravin Lance and Baroness Lily Lance. Black spiky hair that was always in a mess. Red eyes that showed no emotion or joy to others unless with his siblings where they always seemed to light up. His face almost always in a deadpan expression unless talking with his siblings where he would have a small smile. A head shorter than the other males in his family. His belly well rounded due to lack of exercise and discipline.
The System had not appeared to him. The mysterious force that kept the world from being destroyed that allowed humans to gain power and beat back beings that would come from Dungeons, dimensions broken through space and time that would hold things from other worlds like treasure or monsters. It usually appeared between the age of ten until the age of seventeen.
The conditions of it appearing were unknown. Scholars had studied the phenomenon for centuries but hadn't gained any clue for its appearance in the world of Reviere. Most believed it appeared only when something life changing happened, a horrible trauma, or even a lucky experience was chanced upon.
It had been eight years since his seventeenth birthday. The day hope in the System appearing left him. The only emotions he could bring out were when he was helping his siblings.
Of course, with each year that passed the worse things got. This year, on his twenty-fifth birthday he knew that his life was in danger.
His sister had married a Viscount and had left the household. His younger brother Gawain was courting a Duchess three towns over. The youngest brother had just gained entrance to the Noble Starlight Academy.
The Lance siblings were gone.
His chance of survival with them.
Baron Dravin Lance and Baroness Lily Lance had the perfect plan.
The next time he was sick he would be sent to a nearby towns doctor. On the way there he would perish due to bandits hired to take care of him. The bandits would bring the head of their eldest and would be paid discreetly.
It would have been simple.
Clean.
Efficient.
In a way, Percival Lance was dead. His story over. However, that would have been a very boring ending.
So instead, this is the ending of one man's story and the beginning of another's.