A Blade and an Arrow

Gifted Beings Are Cursed

n. totally expected i'd post this here yesterday but then i fell asleep so heh.

uh, top mq, bot fx, explicit sex.

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Gifts... were said to be sent by the gods, whoever they may be and how many they were. Said to be gifted by divine hands to the chosen worthy enough for it. Where they see a newborn to have a purpose and deserving to have their entire family bloodline have gifts to make them special. Special and help humanity. Save it from the catastrophe mankind themselves create.

It is said the gifted were the heroes of all. To be revered. Respected as they were the reason people are safe and protected heavily. The gifted were the shields and blades against any possible mayhem. The frontlines in battles. The aids and the backup. They bring forth peace and once one swallowed from the wrong cup and chose rapacity, then the gifts become poison. Eats at them from the inside out and instead of the gift passing down their bloodline, the poison greedily flows from one ancestor to their descendant instead.

Of which is the promise of the divine retribution.

Use the gifts well for the amelioration of the world and the gods will offer you more. Use it against its original purpose and the gods will offer you less. Something they've been taught ever since, whether one was gifted or not. It's to teach those who haven't been given one that they have a chance if they have proven themselves of worth. Envy will do one no good and bring one to nothing. Work hard and be humble. Your main objective is to help people without expecting anything in return. The Gods will know, they always do. Whether one was honest with their actions or not, celestial beings reads their heart and where it honestly lies.

The system of the gifted has been set in stone during the first era of them. Once they've learned how the gifts are passed down, the originals have created a village gradually turned to a city now specifically for the gifted. A university specifically for them to enhance their descendant's gifts and learn what more they can learn.

See, the system works easily. Person A's ancestors have more than ten gifts, then person A inherits all those gifts and is able to learn more gifts depending on how much spiritual qi they have from the gifts of their ancestors. Say, if person B has only one or two gifts that originated from their first ancestor and the rest has not much been able to prove themselves to earn more gifts, then they only inherit the one or two gifts and is limited to how much they learn. If person B manages to prove themselves to the gods – easier said than done as their ancestors did not do it themselves –, then throughout their life, they will be able to acquire more gifts they could pass down to their generations.

Naturally, as everything in the world has a hierarchy – the city is divided into two. The nobles and the commoners. One is only counted as noble if their family has more than fifteen gifts, otherwise they are commoners. Simple as that. Terrible, sure, maybe. Were the commoners treated unfairly? Nobles have a stick up their ass called ego, of course they were. What universe and era was there a place were a group of people were not treated terribly by another?

That's how the world works, gifted or not.

Now, the university is open to all at least. Teachers prioritize the commoners as they should. One of the only good things really. They may prioritize the commoners in terms of teaching about the gifts, doesn't mean they treat them as good as the nobles. They're trash. Copper in a palace of gold. One of the other good things are at least they provide uniform as not to further cut the already divided classes with their outfits and qualities of clothing.

It's a coincidence, nothing more, that he managed to be roomed with one of the stuck up nobles. One of the highest ranks, no less. Their family acquiring a shocking number of thirty-one gifts and the man himself being a damn prodigy that he's actually able to learn more and prove himself more the teachers are expecting by the time the noble son graduates, he would have an appalling number of about fifty gifts.