Chapter 3 – A World That Leaves No Place for the Weak
Power dictated worth.
That was the truth I had lived with since childhood, the unspoken rule woven into every interaction, every glance, every decision made within my family's halls.
But I had never truly understood it—not in the way those around me did.
Not until now.
A Mark That Could Not Be Erased
I had always known I was different.
It wasn't just the way people looked at me—it was the way they didn't.
The way conversations shifted when I entered a room. The way expectations fell silent in my presence. The way even the servants, trained to show deference to their masters, barely acknowledged my existence.
At first, I thought it was because I was weak.
But weakness, in itself, wasn't enough to warrant complete disregard. Even the weak had value, as long as they could serve a purpose.
So why was I treated as if I had none?
The answer lay in something far worse than weakness.
It lay in the Vein Resonance Test—the ritual that determined a person's potential before their awakening.
The test wasn't complex. A person's innate energy was measured against a controlled force, their body's reaction determining how much latent power resided within them.
Most children showed high or moderate resonance, meaning their awakening would be strong enough to secure a future for them.
A few had low resonance, meaning they would struggle but could still awaken under the right conditions.
But once in a rare while, a child's result would be even lower than that.
So low, it was barely measurable.
They were called the Empty.And I was one of them.
The Weight of an Unseen Judgment
I was too young to remember the day of my test. But the effects had shaped my life ever since.It explained why I was never trained. Why I was never tested, pushed, or given resources like my peers.Because my fate had already been decided before I had the chance to prove otherwise.
In this world, strength wasn't just expected—it was required.
A noble house was only as strong as the blood that ran through it. And my blood was labeled worthless before I had even learned what it meant to fight.That was why I was ignored.
Not out of cruelty. Not out of malice.
But because I was not even worth hating.
I was simply… nothing.
And yet, the more I observed, the more I realized something.
The power that dictated everything—it had rules.
It wasn't as simple as "the strong rise and the weak fall." There was a system, a hierarchy that governed everything, from the lowest soldier to the highest ruler.
I had never paid much attention to it before, because I never had a place within it.
But now, I listened.I watched.
And I began to understand.
The foundation of power was built upon three fundamental laws:
The Source – The raw energy that existed within all living beings. Some called it ether, others called it lifeforce, but in the end, it was the essential force that powered every Gift.
The Awakening – A person's first exposure to their power. How they awakened shaped their abilities permanently. A weak awakening led to a weak Gift. A strong awakening created powerful individuals.
The Ascension – The act of refining and growing one's Gift through training, experience, and breakthroughs. The stronger the foundation, the higher one could climb.
The nobles had mastered these rules.
Through controlled awakenings, through selective breeding of bloodlines, through strict traditions that ensured only the strong would rise.
And it worked.
The nobility held power for a reason. Their control was not just political—it was absolute. Because no commoner, no outsider, could match their carefully cultivated strength.
Or so they believed.
But power was not as absolute as they wanted to believe.
As I learned about these rules, about the way Gifts were awakened and refined, a realization took root in my mind.
Everything in this world operated within a set structure.
But what if…
What if something fell outside of that structure?
What if the Vein Resonance Test didn't measure everything?
What if being "Empty" didn't mean having no power… but instead, something they simply couldn't detect?
The world had its categories, its labels, its unshakable truths.
But if history had taught me anything, it was that not everything fit within the boundaries people expected.
My fate had been decided before I had a chance to fight it.
But maybe—just maybe—that decision had been wrong.
And if that was true…
Then I still had a path forward.
One that no one else could see.
One that would change everything.