Chapter 2: Classless

Rael stood on the stage with his hand still resting against the Awakening Stone. The surface felt cold now, ordinary, as if it had never held any power at all. A single thought kept circling through his mind. Even without talent, even without a strong bloodline, a person could still become an awakener. The records were clear on that. Ordinary citizens had awakened before. But without a class a person was no different from any other human. No mana, no skills, no path into the Dream Realm. Just a body that would live and die on Titan like millions of others who had never touched the stone.

He muttered under his breath, the words barely audible. "What is happening to me? No class? This can’t be happening. I’m a genius. A prodigy. I don’t have a class?" He stared at the dull surface. "The stone is broken. Yes. That’s the reason."

He turned toward the examiner. "The stone is broken. Let me take another test."

The examiner’s expression did not change. He had seen this before. "Mr. Rael, please exit the stage."

"But you see," Rael said, his voice rising, "this can’t be happening. How can I have no skill?"

It was not the first time the examiner had watched someone break down after the stone refused them. He kept his tone even. "Sir, the stone is fine. Please exit the stage."

Rael still did not move. The examiner hesitated only because of the name Blackthorn. The heir of that house could not be dismissed the same way as an ordinary student. He gave a short nod. "All right. Place your hand again."

Rael pressed his palm flat against the stone in a rush of panic. The same soft mechanical voice answered from the speakers above the stage.

"No class detected."

Something inside him stopped. His mind went blank for a moment, then everything turned hazy, as if the air itself had thickened. The edges of the auditorium blurred. He heard laughter begin in the seats. It started small and spread. Jokes passed from one row to the next. Someone nearby spoke to a child in a clear, carrying voice. "See? That’s why education doesn’t matter in this world. Only power does."

Princess Bianca watched him from the side with one careful glance. Other children of the powerhouses did not bother with subtlety. They pointed. They laughed openly. Rael heard every word, yet none of it fully reached him. His thoughts moved too slowly. He stepped down from the stage and walked back toward his seat. The friends who had sat beside him earlier had already shifted farther away, as if proximity itself carried some kind of sickness. Eve Starborne, the girl who used to stay close and look at him with quiet interest, was pulled back by Matthew Rockwell who was Rael’s bestfriend before. Matthew’s hand rested on her arm. A smirk sat on his face as he guided her a few seats farther down the row.

Rael sat. For the first time in his life his mind was completely empty. No formulas. No remembered lectures. No plans. Just a blank space where certainty used to live. The ceremony continued around him. Names were called. Lights flared. New classes were announced. He registered none of it.

High above, in the gallery reserved for the royal family and the highest houses, Empress Celeste Solaria watched the stage with a faint frown. She was the most powerful woman in the kingdom, and her voice carried easily when she spoke. "What a poor boy. I feel bad for him." She turned her gaze toward Duke Axel Blackthorn, Rael’s father, and the pity in her expression was open. "I thought that boy would have been one of the pillars of the kingdom."

Behind her, Duke Victor Gale gave a short laugh. "Yeah, Empress. Now he will make the pillars for this kingdom."

The other noble representatives joined in. Soft laughter moved along the gallery. Empress Celeste said nothing more. Axel’s face did not change by a single degree. A knight standing at his shoulder slammed the flat of a sword against the floor three times.

Thud Thud Thud...

The signal was clear. The Blackthorn family was leaving. Empress Celeste watched them go and spoke once more, almost to herself. "Still the stone face as ever, huh."

Duke Axel Blackthorn walked out with the family elders and the house knights. No one spoke to him. In the seats below, the reaction was mixed. Many felt a quiet disappointment. The boy’s past had suggested he would become a monster of talent. Others felt something closer to relief. The Blackthorns already held enough monsters. Another one would have shifted the balance further.

The ceremony ran to its end. Only one percent of the candidates failed to awaken. Almost everyone in the university came from a powerful bloodline, so the outcome had never been in real doubt. The last names were called, the last lights flared, and the formal proceedings closed.

Rael’s old group gathered near the front rows. Eve, Matthew, and the others moved toward Adrian Gale. They offered congratulations for the S-rank Lightning Blade. They bowed when Princess Bianca passed. She nodded once and continued on without slowing she once more glanced at Rael then left the auditorium. Then the group began to talk among themselves about the Dream Realm, about meeting inside it, about working together once the night transfers began. They knew how deeply Rael hated Adrian. That knowledge only made the conversation louder. They glanced toward the seat where Rael still sat with empty eyes and dead posture. Laughter rose again. Someone called him trash. The brightest star, the hope of the Solaria kingdom, reduced to trash. They laughed longer, then left the auditorium in a loose group, still talking. After them many students left some smiling and some with tears in there eyes because of having a weak class.

Rael watched them go. A single clear thought cut through the haze. He would have killed for any of the weak classes those others were crying about. Even the lowest rank would have been enough. Anything except this, except being classless.

When the last students and the last officials had gone, the vast chamber fell quiet. Only then did Rael cry. The tears came without sound at first, then with the full weight of everything he had carried. Every expectation he had built for his life poured out of him. The childhood dream of becoming the most powerful awakener on Titan, of standing as a hero, ended in that empty auditorium. He would never enter the Dream Realm. He would never awaken. The path was closed.

He looked up toward the high ceiling, toward whatever might be listening beyond the metal and stone. His voice broke when he shouted.

"Why? Why me? I have given everything I had to become powerful, and you made those slacking bastards have power but not me. Why? You bastard god, why?"

Someone sat in the upper stands, watching. A figure stepped out of the shadows beside that person and spoke in a low voice. "My lord, we should leave now." The seated figure looked at Rael for one more moment, then rose and walked away without answering.

When the tears finally stopped, Rael stood and walked out of the auditorium. The private car that should have waited for him was gone. He started walking toward home under the layered lights of the capital, the long roads of Titan stretching ahead of him in silence.

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