Favored by the Family That Will Become the Strongest! - Chapter 31
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Normally, it fell to Barcan to manage situations like this, but his arrival was running late.
‘I’ll just drag this out until Barcan gets here.’
With that thought, she opened her mouth.
“Stop, please. The behavior of people claiming to be nobility seems rather beneath someone of common birth like myself.”
She meant to redirect the attention that had been fixed on Bianca toward herself.
If these people knew she was the Rothwell Duke House’s daughter, stepping forward shouldn’t be a problem. It would actually draw their eyes more effectively this way.
As expected, the aristocrats’ shocked gazes poured down upon her. Esina opened her mouth in a cold voice.
“This is ridiculous. You’re doing this because you trust in Bianca?”
“Is that the only thing you can take pride in? Your station and your Ability?”
“Isn’t that everything? Do you need anything else?”
“You’re nothing more than that kind of person. Measuring people solely by their Ability and status. Deciding their worth based on those alone.”
“What are you talking about.”
“Act so carelessly, and you might end up with egg on your face. Who knows? The person you despise might become a remarkable Ability User.”
Diana was speaking her truth in her own way, but no one was listening to her words.
“I don’t think you’re hearing me.”
Among those who had merely watched until that moment, Daniel was the one who reacted most visibly. Memories of what he’d suffered from her before came flooding back.
Daniel sensed it instinctively: this was his last chance for revenge against Diana.
Once she returned to the Rothwell Duke House, opportunities like this would never come again. So he stepped forward dramatically and spoke.
“Miss Bianca, I’m disappointed.”
“……Disappointed?”
“How have you raised your maid, that she dares speak such words to the nobility? Don’t you see how flustered Miss Esina looks? Why haven’t you punished your maid? This won’t do at all.”
As he spoke, Daniel advanced toward Diana with a threatening air.
‘He’s trying to take his revenge from before.’
Diana’s gaze followed him upward. The moment he raised his hand with a cruel smile seemed to move in slow motion.
“How dare a commoner open her mouth!”
Then Daniel swung his arm violently.
‘I’ll pay him back tenfold when I get the chance.’
Diana squeezed her eyes shut, bracing herself for the pain to come.
But no matter how much time passed, no pain came.
“Agh!”
Instead, a scream reached her ears. When Diana blinked her eyes open in confusion, she saw something impossible.
“……Miss Bianca?”
Bianca was gripping Daniel’s wrist.
It should have been impossible. Daniel wasn’t a high-ranked Ability User, but he was one nonetheless. Yet Bianca had stopped him with a single hand?
He hadn’t stopped for Bianca’s sake. A slight tremor ran through Daniel’s arm as she held it. A tremor.
He was purely overwhelmed by her strength. And Diana could easily discern the reason.
From Bianca’s body……
A black haze was rising.
* * *
Bianca blinked slowly.
‘Diana is being tormented because of me.’
Yet she could do nothing. She was foolishly just watching Diana suffer the harassment.
A coward. Pathetic.
Diana had stepped forward for her. And she was doing nothing.
She could see Daniel approaching Diana. She could see him reaching toward her.
She knew that soon her brother Barcan would arrive, and he wouldn’t leave any of these people unpunished.
But.
‘Will I just watch again?’
In this moment—
For some reason, Barcan’s words came back to her.
“What does it feel like when you Awaken your Ability? You never forget it. It’s exhilarating.”
Bianca felt as though the world had stopped. The scornful gazes. The noisy chatter of the crowd.
She couldn’t see them. Couldn’t hear them.
She could only see Daniel approaching Diana. And she felt it—that she could stop him from attacking her.
The moment that thought took hold.
Whoosh—
Her body moved as she willed it.
There had clearly been considerable distance between her and them.
A distance that an ordinary person could never have covered in a single instant—yet Bianca crossed it.
She seized Daniel’s wrist.
“Agh!”
With crushing force.
“L-let go!”
Daniel screamed, but Bianca didn’t release her grip. Only when she heard Diana’s voice did her mind clear.
“Miss Bianca?”
Bianca’s head turned.
“Are you all right, Diana?”
“Yes, I’m fine. Are you, miss?”
“I……I’m fine. No, more than fine—I feel incredible.”
Bianca roughly shook off Daniel’s hand and turned her head away. The gazes falling upon her were filled with undisguised shock and horror.
“What……how did she move like that?”
“Did I imagine it?”
“Could it be……an Ability?”
Bianca gently guided Diana back to her seat. Then she fixed her gaze on Daniel again. He was gingerly touching his wrist, which clearly ached terribly from where she’d held it.
Diana watched Bianca. The black haze that had risen from her body had completely vanished.
‘It looked like she used her Ability only for a moment……’
It couldn’t have been a complete Awakening. The Darkness Encroachment hadn’t been resolved yet. It seemed she had temporarily Awakened for some reason.
Bianca was touching her own hand, as well. As if the experience of moments ago had been a lie, her body had returned to normal, and she felt the helplessness wash over her again.
Soon Daniel cried out, his face flushed bright red.
“W-what are you doing, Bianca!”
Yet even as he spoke, he didn’t dare move readily. The way Bianca had moved was far too alien for a non-Ability User. He, having felt it himself, knew best.
Considerable pain radiated from the wrist she’d seized.
And as everyone stared at Bianca in bewilderment.
A low voice was heard.
“What are you doing?”
All eyes turned toward the voice. There stood Barcan, arms crossed.
He swept his cold gaze across the room. Wherever that gaze fell, the young nobles gasped and took steps backward. They hadn’t anticipated Barcan’s appearance at all.
“You there—what were you thinking? Did you just raise your voice at my sister?”
Daniel, singled out by Barcan, went pale and began to tremble.
“B-Barcan……what brings you h-here……”
“I asked if you raised your voice at my sister.”
Barcan lifted his head irritably.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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