"you can pull yourself up into nobility by your own bootstraps"

That's not what happens in this game at all. You're a noble bastard raised by peasants (which explains why you feel like a nobody starting out and have no skills that nobles are raised with) but your noble father still looks out for you and pulls strings to get you the freedom with which you gain skills and become an adventurer or whatever. There's no bootstraps involved, just explicit noble privilege.