Renn Noah had never been the shining star of the Noah family.
Born as the third son to a minor baron in the remote outskirts of the Lionheart Kingdom, Renn's life had always been quiet, uneventful… ordinary.
The Noahs were nobles—granted their title generations ago when an ancestor did something brave in a long-forgotten war.
Since then, they'd lived on the borderlands, managing wheat fields and obscurity.
To the world, the Noahs were nobles.
To real nobles, they were commoners dressed up in secondhand pride.
That quiet humiliation sat heavy on every Noah—none of them said it aloud, but all of them felt it.
They weren't climbing the ladder. They were clinging to the bottom rung.
And Renn?
He understood that more than anyone.
His eldest brother had a brilliant mind for numbers and trade, already running most of the estate.
His second brother was a knight-in-training with natural talent, even invited to train at a count lord's hall.
