"I'm sorry, Your Majesty."
Ezra lowered his head before the Queen, his posture respectful and his voice calm.
"I will politely decline your offer."
He made his decision clear without adding any unnecessary explanation.
"Seriously?!"
Camilla Mayer's eyes widened.
For a moment, the Head of the Nebula Royal Alchemist Branch looked as though she had misheard him.
The other three Heads of the Royal Alchemist Branches reacted in much the same way.
They exchanged baffled looks, yet none of them seemed able to find the right words to respond.
Who would have expected this?
The young child of House Ashenlocke, a Duke's family, had just refused an opportunity to become a member of the Royal Family.
And the strangest part was his status.
Ezra was not a Mainline Noble.
Neither was he a Highline Noble by birth or through his parents' rank.
He was merely a Lowline Noble, a boy whose standing within his own family had only recently been raised to Highline.
