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━─────── Ever since Lance could remember, his older brother had been a shadow──an unwanted(to him) ghost lingering at the edges of the Exylia family, present only in the whispers of reverence that seemed to follow him everywhere.
Renze Exylia, they all said, was destined for greatness. The genius, the prodigy, the child graced by the Light God. On the day he was born, celebrations erupted across the land, as the night did not descend, banishing darkness itself so no evil spirit dared approach.
His birth, they claimed, cast out every malicious spirit in the land, if only for a day.
But stories had a way of twisting themselves into exaggerated lies. And Renze Exylia?
He was no saint.
No.
He was nothing but an obsessive, self-absorbed freak.
In Lance's eyes, his older brother stayed far from home, barricading himself in his school dormitory as if family were a disease he needed to avoid. His world was one of endless magical studies──magic filling his days and nights, magic drowning out every connection to his bloodline. He was beloved by the world, admired by strangers, revered by teachers. But to Lance, Renze was as distant as a star he could never touch. Six years had passed without a word, and now, watching him from across the room, Lance felt only a familiar, bitter contempt clawing at his chest.
Renze was hunched over a worn book, flipping through the pages with a calculated detachment, his fingertips ghosting over each line as if the words held hidden secrets. But it wasn't even advanced magic──it was a basic manual, so elementary that it barely scratched the surface of magical theory. Lance's mouth twisted in disdain.
This? This was the great text his genius brother needed studying?
He leaned against the bookshelf, crossing his arms with an annoyed huff. Renze's fingers drifted from one page to the next, oblivious to the shelves filled with complex spellbooks, ancient runes, and forbidden tomes all around him. And yet here he was, picking through beginner-level drivel.
It was ridiculous.
"Why do you need to read that?" Lance scoffed, his voice edged with a biting sneer. "Basic magic? Really? You actually need that crap?"
The silence that followed stoked the fire of his irritation, gnawing away slowly at any patience he had left. Renze didn't bother to look up, his face a mask of unfeeling calm, an untouchable coldness that only fueled Lance's anger. The page turned, Renze's wrist flicking with a precision as controlled as it was dismissive. He was so relaxed, almost as if Lance's presence was beneath his notice.
