The cloaked man was actually left with no other choice.
He had once been a prodigy of a certain civilization. Unlike the prodigies who had come to the vicinity of Gaia Human civilization this time, he was a "true" prodigy.
This was not some written rule, nor was it even an unspoken convention. It was merely a faint consensus: only those who clawed their way up from the bottom through their own strength and fought their way into the ranks of prodigies were "true" prodigies.
The reasoning was simple. People had those close to them and those distant from them. Any sentient lifeform was bound by this. You could not favor outsiders over your own kin. That simply made no sense.
When resources were exceedingly abundant, it was still possible to treat everyone as equally as possible. For example, when a civilization was still in its True Era, or when its True Era had only recently ended and it still possessed abundant resources that could be distributed among most of its people, the inertia of such "morality" remained. The so-called prodigies might truly be those with the greatest potential in an entire civilization or race.
But as time passed, as more time elapsed after the end of a True Era, less and less true essence was produced within a civilization while more and more was consumed. Gradually, expenditures exceeded income. Under such circumstances, no matter how selfless or sensible the powerful figures occupying a civilization's management and leadership might be, they would subconsciously prioritize resources for their own factions, forces, and subordinates. Over time, that priority would become their own clansmen, family members, descendants, and so on...
As always, this was only human nature. Any sentient lifeform would act this way. Those who could restrain themselves for the sake of