Sunless: The Tale of a Failed Royal

Magic defines everything. Status. Power. Worth.
That's what everyone believes deep inside, even if they never truly admit it to themselves, but they fall back on it when they fail so they can blame and perpetuate that status quo.

None believes this more than the royals, and none more than Riven, who was raised by his elitist grandfather on these values.

Being born with one of the most destructive powers in the world, "Ancestral Flame," along with the royal blood that gave him not only notoriety but also massive power comparable to an elf at birth, he flaunted his superiority over everyone, to the detriment of others.

But his parents and siblings weren't like him; they were kind people, untouched or rebellious to the acts & ways of other nobility, and they tried to change him but couldn't until one day he was humbled by a commoner boy with unnaturally strong scholarship at his school named Ryuji.

After being beaten for the first time in his life, his worldview was rocked, and after many months of trying to get back at Ryuji and the people closest to him, mostly to his own detriment and loss of people and things around him.

He was finally held accountable and about to be sent to prison after the tireless work of Ryuji, his friends, and Riven's own mother. But then, when he was recovering to be sentenced the next day, he was possessed by an unknown spirit that triggered smoke magic.

Causing him to kill his entire family in his sleep.