The table was silent.
"I refused to participate," Zacard continued. "Rayon called me soft. Said I was a disgrace to my family name. We had a rather public falling out."
"Was that when you started questioning everything?" Damion said.
"Yes." Zacard nodded. "I started paying attention to the commoner students around the campus. And I realized something that should have been obvious from the beginning."
"What?" Lucas asked.
"That competence has nothing to do with bloodline," Zacard said.
"I saw commoner students who worked twice as hard as any noble, who had more skill and dedication than most of my supposedly 'superior' peers. I saw people like Damion, who I'd assumed was common-born and attacked because of it, demonstrate abilities that put most nobles to shame."
