Favored by the Family That Will Become the Strongest! - Chapter 1

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Prologue.
“No, please hold on…… Please.”
Diena unfurled her Innate Ability with trembling fingertips. Soft light wrapped around Barkan’s wounds, but there was no response.
Her Purification Ability could only dispel darkness; it had no power to hold onto a fading life. Even knowing this, she could not stop her hands.
“Stop…… Diena.”
Barkan’s voice was faint but resolute.
“Don’t be foolish. You have to survive.”
“You should have left me behind! Why…….”
Barkan smiled faintly.
“How could I abandon you? You’re my sister.”
But Diena was not his blood sister.
Worse, she was from House Rothwell—the very house that had brought ruin upon his family, House Kardian.
“Why don’t you resent me? If not for me, you’d be living as the strongest, boasting your power.”
It was a question she’d wanted to ask for years, one she’d lacked the courage to voice. Yet she’d finally spilled it out in the most cowardly of moments.
At Diena’s cry, Barkan slowly shook his head.
“I’ve never hated you, not once.”
“But…….”
Diena gently touched Barkan’s face with trembling hands.
“You have to live. Happily…….”
Barkan’s eyes closed, and in that moment, the world fell silent.
Diena buried her face against his hand and wept. She too was already at her limit.
Her life was flickering out as the price of overusing her Innate Ability.
Tears streamed down her face.
“I won’t let it rest. I won’t.”
If she were given a chance to live again, she would not forgive those who had killed her family.
She would avenge herself upon those who had made Barkan this way, no matter what.
Inside the Cave, where the blizzard had ceased, the warmth of two bodies slowly faded away.
1.
Diena did not know who her mother was, but she had a father who cherished her.
However, when she turned fourteen, he vanished during a Monster Extermination campaign and never returned.
The reliable shield he had always been for her was gone.
House Rothwell swiftly fell into the hands of her Uncle, and Diena became an unwelcome guest in her own house.
At first, Diena harbored a faint hope. After all, he was her father’s brother—even if not quite as protective as her father had been, surely he would become her guardian.
True to expectation, her Uncle showed pity for Diena, bereft of her father.
“Diena, from now on, think of me as your father.”
But her aunt and cousins showed her no regard as family.
Most awakened their Innate Abilities at fourteen, but Diena had passed her birthday without awakening—she was a Non-Ability User.
In this world, even those of high birth who failed to awaken their abilities were denied noble status, while Ability Users of common birth could rise to high rank.
Ordinarily, this would have posed no problem. Most noble children awakened their Innate Abilities and became Ability Users.
But those who did not were treated as worse than commoners. Families casting out such children was commonplace.
The reason her Uncle had been able to seize House Rothwell so easily after the former Duke vanished was precisely because he was a powerful Ability User.
Whenever her Uncle stepped away, Diena’s cousin Romie would smirk and say:
“Listen here—I’m the lady of this house now. If you want to stay under this roof, you’d better do your part. See that cloth over there? Use it to clean my room spotless.”
Romie stood with arms folded, her arrogant expression punctuated by a slight nod. Her brother Cain, watching this, giggled with amusement.
“Hah, this is priceless! The grand princess of House Rothwell has become our Romie’s maid!”
Diena said nothing and cast her eyes down. She had never truly had a choice.
She could not burden her busy Uncle with her troubles, so she kept silent. Thus the beloved princess of House Rothwell descended into a life worse than that of any household servant.
Yet death did not come for her. At sixteen, Diena finally awakened her Innate Ability.
Purification Ability. As Ability Users accumulated Darkness from using their powers, her ability to heal them became indispensable to their survival.
And from that moment, her family changed. Her aunt, who had always blown cold wind upon her, approached with a radiant smile.
“Our Diena, you’ve finally awakened your Innate Ability!”
Even her cousins, who had always treated her as a servant, now wore apologetic expressions and embraced her.
“Diena, I’m sorry. I was so mean to you. I was too young then. I won’t do it anymore.”
Diena was not unaware of their wariness, of course. But at a single word from her Uncle—the only one who had ever pitied her—the bitter resentment lodged in her chest melted away like thawing snow.
“Diena, I always believed in you. I knew you would become the pride of our house.”
At last, happiness had found her.
It took a very long time before she learned that belief was nothing but a cruel illusion.
At twenty, her Uncle succeeded in his Rebellion.
With him now seated on the Emperor’s throne, House Rothwell overflowed with festive celebration day after day. Yet against that backdrop, Diena’s chamber was shrouded in despair.
‘I have nothing left.’
Only a body that would soon cease to draw breath.
Diena fixed her gaze upon the physician before her.
“Will you say it again?”
“I speak now at the cost of my own life, my lady.”
“…….”
“If you use your Innate Ability any further, you will die.”
Diena blinked slowly.
“Your body was still in its growth during those years. You spent your power far too recklessly, far too quickly.”
The physician continued, regarding her with pity.
“Every physician who examined you has been silenced by the Duke. He said if you were to learn of this, he would kill them all.”
“Why would you tell me this?”
“Because I hail from the Kardian Territory. I am doomed to be purged anyway. I apologize for turning away until now.”
Diena laughed hollowly and wandered without direction until she found her Uncle.
‘It must be a lie.’
Her Uncle could never do such a thing. Even when his own family had mistreated her, he had shown her kindness.
But—
“Tsk, so you’ve found out.”
Her Uncle revealed his true nature without delay.
“Yes. Thanks to your Purification Ability, our house rose to the highest seat. You’ve done well all this time, Diena.”
He admitted he had exploited her powers for his own gain. Diena’s body trembled with betrayal.
“Even if I died, it wouldn’t matter to you?”
“To defeat those vermin of House Kardian, it was unavoidable. Isn’t it glorious to have sacrificed yourself for your house?”
House Rothwell’s Duke laughed brightly, as though her very life meant nothing at all.
“You said I was family.”
“Yes, we are family. Which is precisely why you must work harder now, is it not? To remain family.”
The Duke of House Rothwell continued in a glacial voice.
“You are not my true daughter. Yet I have raised you no differently from my own flesh and blood. Now you must pay that price.”
“Uncle…….”
“There are still many remnants of House Kardian scattered about. Until I have extinguished every last one of them, you cannot rest.”
Certainty gleamed in his eyes—certainty that Diena would not refuse him.
And in truth, Diena of before would have done exactly that. She would have given her all, as she always had.
Because they were family. All her life, she had offered them unconditional devotion. Yet as though to mock that very devotion, the Duke smiled with cruel indifference and spoke:
“Sacrifice yourself for your family, to the very end.”
* * *
Diena’s eyes opened slowly.
It was an old dream of the past, one she hadn’t had in ages. The memory of her life in House Rothwell and her final moments with Barkan—had she witnessed her entire life flash before death?
Her last memory in the Cave came back with vivid clarity. Barkan had died, and her own breath had ceased. Diena blinked.
‘Am I not dead? Where on earth am I?’
Splash!
That was when cold water crashed down upon her head. Diena startled and whirled around.
“Romie……?”
“Romie? Who said you could call me that?”
Diena was confused.
“What…… What is this?”
She was certain that was her cousin Romie, yet the girl looked far younger. Was she still dreaming?
After Diena had awakened her Innate Ability, Romie had never been openly disrespectful to her.
‘Though behind my back, she always sneered and mocked me.’
Whenever she dared to be bold, her Uncle would scold her for it.
“You’re supposed to call me Miss Romie. Do you still think you’re the lady of the house?”
Miss Romie. That was the title Diena had used for her cousin before her Ability awakened. Romie’s brow furrowed in annoyance.
“Anyway, stay in your room for now. No need to do any cleaning either.”

“…….”
“The Five Great Houses will be visiting in two days. Understood? Seeing you would only spoil their mood.”
Having spoken those words, Romie departed with her maid. Diena stared blankly at her retreating figure.
‘This is strange. It should be a dream, yet it feels too vivid to be one.’
Diena moved slowly. Inside an old Brass Bowl lay water, cold and still. Upon its surface was reflected a face both strange and familiar.
It was the face of a girl who appeared to be in her mid-teens. Diena’s eyes widened and she stumbled backward.
She pinched her own arm.
“Ow, that hurts…….”
The pain was real. Which meant her current situation was not a dream.
‘I’ve…… become younger?’
Though she couldn’t fathom how it was possible, she had returned to the past.
And Romie’s words about the Five Great Houses arriving in two days.
Now she could guess which time this was.
‘That’s when Barkan first came to House Rothwell.’
Barkan Kardian, heir to House Kardian.
The man who had rescued her when she’d fled House Rothwell in her previous life.
At the thought of meeting his younger self, her heart began to race.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————