Chapter 5 – Sold
The orphanage had always felt like a cage, but that morning, the bars finally closed.
I was summoned to the main hall, the one the nuns used only when nobles or merchants came to bargain for something—or someone. The room smelled of cheap incense, as though they thought smoke could cover the rot of old wood.
The nuns stood stiff, their eyes sharp. They had never liked me, but today there was something new in their faces: greed.
"You will behave," one of them snapped. "For once in your life, do not embarrass us."
I said nothing. My gaze drifted past them to the men who waited at the long table.
Nobles.
Their clothes were too fine, their boots too clean for the slums. Rings glittered on their hands, and mana swirled faintly around their shoulders like faint blue fire. At their center sat a man with silver hair—no, not silver. White, pure as snow. His eyes were cold, sharp enough to cut stone.
A duke. I didn't need anyone to tell me. His presence said enough.
And when his gaze fell on me, the hall grew heavy.
He studied me like one might study a mirror that had cracked in the wrong way.
"This boy," he said at last, his voice deep, even. "Where did you find him?"
The head nun bowed, her voice dripping with false sweetness. "My lord, he was abandoned at our door as an infant. We have raised him since then. But as you can see, he is… different. Not like the others."
Different.
That was their word for me. The word they used when they couldn't call me cursed out loud.
The duke's gaze did not waver. His eyes narrowed slightly, flickering with calculation. "His features."
"Yes, my lord," the nun hurried to say. "We have noticed as well. His hair, his eyes—they resemble your family. Surely it cannot be a coincidence."
I clenched my fists at my side. My skin, always pale and smooth, had never sunken into the sickly gray of the other orphans. My hair, white with a faint shimmer of purple at the ends, always caught the light strangely. My eyes—grey and white, glowing faintly, sometimes flickering as if reflecting fire—were things the nuns had always hated.
They made me look… wrong.
And now, those same things had become my price tag.
The duke leaned forward. "Boy. Look at me."
I lifted my chin. Our eyes met. His were cold, but there was something else behind them. Recognition.
"...What is your name?" he asked.
I hesitated. "..."
Noctis's voice whispered in my mind. "Be careful. Names hold weight."
"I'm called… nothing that matters," I said at last.
The duke's lips pressed into a thin line. For the first time, his gaze flickered, just slightly.
"He will come with us," he said simply.
The nuns almost sighed in relief, their shoulders sagging. They didn't even look at me. Only at the purse of gold the duke's steward set on the table. Their eyes gleamed as though they had just sold a sack of jewels.
I stood in silence, watching the exchange.
That was what I was worth to them. Coins.
As the steward approached, laying a heavy cloak over my shoulders, Noctis spoke again. "You don't belong to them anymore. Remember that. Whatever comes next, you are not theirs."
I swallowed hard. "But am I his?"
Noctis didn't answer immediately. Then, soft and firm: "No. You are still yours. Never forget that."
The cloak smelled of fresh linen, too clean for my skin. The steward's grip was firm as he led me out of the orphanage. For a moment, I glanced back. The nuns stood by the table, clutching the gold, their faces twisted in the same emotions I had seen all my life—red anger, green envy, black hatred.
Not once did I see regret.
I turned away.
The carriage outside gleamed with polished wood and silver trim. I had never been so close to something so fine. The crest of the duke's family was carved into its side—a white hawk in flight.
I climbed in, the door closing behind me with a final thud. The city blurred past the windows as the wheels rattled on cobblestones. The slums fell away, swallowed by darkness.
For the first time, I was leaving the only place I had ever known.
But I wasn't free.
I had been sold.
And whatever awaited me in the duke's house, I could feel it already—it would change everything.
End of Chapter 5