Favored by the Family That Will Become the Strongest! - Chapter 59

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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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She raised her voice as though utterly indifferent to the stares around her.
Diena looked at her in surprise, when Barcan suddenly appeared and grasped Diena’s wrist.
“You might want to watch what you say, Romie Rothwell.”
“B-Barcan? What are you doing here?”
Romie blinked in shock, her gaze shifting. The heirs of the Five Great Houses were still gathered in the hall.
Yet Barcan had come to this place anyway. It was nothing short of contempt for the other families.
No noble who valued honor would ever do such a thing. But Barcan seemed not to care in the slightest.
His eyes on Romie were cold—so cold that she could feel the killing intent behind them.
“Say it again in front of me. Tell me what you were trying to do.”
Romie’s face twisted in displeasure.
But that was all. Diena understood why Romie couldn’t say another word to him.
Because he was a Highest-Grade Ability User.
Ironically, the very logic Romie had thrown at Diena—that her power made her superior—was now being applied to Romie herself.
For Romie, this was likely the first time someone had treated her with such disregard. Everyone she had ever met had been eager to gain her favor.
Diena had watched it happen. Even when Diena herself was mocked and ridiculed, Romie had always been treated with kindness and respect among these same people. As though such deference were her birthright from the start.
“Does it feel good, hiding behind other people like that?”
At Romie’s question, Diena laughed softly and replied.
“Yeah, it feels pretty great, actually.”
She showed no sign of being shaken. Diena tugged at Barcan’s arm. An event she had been waiting for was about to unfold soon.
“Let’s go. Bianca should be waiting for us.”
At the sight of the two of them looking so familiar together, something flickered at the corner of Cassian’s mouth. Diena saw it, but simply turned her gaze away.
She had no time to waste on them here. Ignoring the two figures frozen in shock, Diena and Barcan passed them by.
* * *
Bianca descended the stairs with a flushed, animated face. She was ready to rush straight to Diena.
Those who had been watching the Measurement Ceremony didn’t dare approach her. Bianca, paying them no mind, swept her gaze around—and it landed on Esina.
When Esina’s eyes met hers, she visibly startled and looked away. Her face had gone deathly pale.
‘Huh, what’s that about?’
Seeing someone who had ignored her now trembling in fear was oddly exhilarating.
‘I think I’m starting to understand why Highest-Grade Ability Users all act so strangely.’
Had her brother and father always received these kinds of looks? Bianca remembered the way people had gazed at her when she was still a Non-Ability User.
‘It was a look of complete dismissal.’
But now it was entirely different.
Shock, surprise, awe… and fear.
She couldn’t adjust to these looks at all. Part of her felt joy, but another part felt bitter.
‘I’m still the same person.’
The only thing that had changed was one: a Non-Ability User had been classified as a Highest-Grade Ability User.
Just because of that one fact, people’s gazes had transformed in an instant. For no reason she could fathom, her throat tightened. And she missed her family—the family that had loved her no matter who she was.
“Bianca.”
At the sudden sound of her name, Bianca snapped back to herself. Sevar was extending his hand toward her.
His firm hand took hers, and in that moment, the uncomfortable feeling that had been nagging her vanished completely.
“Shall we go see Barcan and Diena?”
Bianca nodded.
The stares of others meant nothing to her. Nothing like that mattered now. Because right now, she had people who saw her for who she truly was.
Bianca held Sevar’s hand and walked forward slowly. The crowd naturally parted for them.
Bianca no longer hung her head. She walked forward now with confidence, her gaze raised.
* * *
The moment Bianca saw Diena, she practically leaped with excitement.
“Diena, did you see me?”
“I saw you. You performed the Measurement Ceremony brilliantly.”
“Nothing went wrong, right? I saw Romie Rothwell with you earlier.”
“No, nothing happened.”
She had crossed paths with disagreeable people and had an idle conversation with them, but since she had taken no real harm, nothing had truly happened.
Diena watched Bianca with a pleased expression. Bianca spent some time explaining how much she had trembled. But that was only brief.
“Bianca, might I have a word with you?”
“If I may ask, how did you awaken your Ability?”
“This is my son—he wanted to greet you, so we’ve come to find you.”
Soon a flood of people surrounded her, keeping Bianca frantically busy. Since Sevar had to stay by her side, Diena and Barcan naturally found themselves alone together.
“Was it really alright to leave your seat like that?”
Barcan looked at Diena with an expression that seemed somehow tense.
“…It wasn’t exactly noble of me, was it?”
Diena looked at him with fresh surprise.
“When did you start worrying about that?”
“Starting today? You said you liked following customs.”
Diena’s eyes widened slightly. She hadn’t expected Barcan to have taken her words to heart. He had actually been listening.
Her feelings grew complicated, but Diena barely managed to respond.
“Right. I did say something like that.”
He opened his mouth as if in explanation.
“As your employer, I should observe proper etiquette. Just now was a special circumstance, so I had to act. I hope you understand.”
“A special circumstance?”
“Yes. That Cassian or whoever coming up to you and trying to talk to you was irritating… no, never mind.”
Barcan clamped his mouth shut, his expression making it clear he had much more to say. When Diena looked at him in bewilderment, he asked.
“What did those guys say to you anyway?”
“Huh?”
“Did I step in unnecessarily?”
Barcan furrowed his brow. It had occurred to him that he might have intervened without being asked. The strange atmosphere had prompted him to act, but it was possible that Diena hadn’t wanted him to. She was perfectly capable of handling the situation on her own.
“No, I was actually grateful.”
Diena hastily shook her head and said so.
“Then that’s fortunate. Still, Romie Rothwell’s true nature is quite unexpected.”
Diena understood his reaction. Publicly, Romie’s image was impeccable. She showed her true colors only among friends from the Five Great Houses, while maintaining a façade of kindness elsewhere.
“Though you probably already suspected it to some extent, Romie and I are not on good terms at all.”
The benevolent princess Romie.
That was the epithet people had called her in the previous life.

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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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