Favored by the Family That Will Become the Strongest! - Chapter 67

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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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Diena was pondering what excuse might convince Barcan when he asked.
“Is it the Side Effect Suppressant from the Magic Tower?”
Diena’s eyes flew wide with alarm.
“You’re coughing up blood because of it, aren’t you?”
Barcan pressed down the surge of anger rising in him and waited for an answer. He wanted to press further, but he couldn’t. This wasn’t the time.
Still, he ventured the question anyway, just in case.
“Even if I told you to stop, you wouldn’t listen, would you?”
“No.”
The answer was remarkably confident. Though he’d anticipated as much, Barcan found himself speaking before he could stop himself.
“There’s nothing wrong with your health, right?”
“There isn’t. I’m in remarkably good health, actually.”
It was utterly unconvincing.
“……Still, I can’t just let this go.”
At Barcan’s words, Diena’s expression tightened with worry that he might change his mind.
“Then what do you propose?”
Barcan narrowed his eyes, looking down at her.
“Right. What would be best?”
* * *
Ten days later.
Diena boarded a carriage bound for Castleton Castle, and Barcan rode alongside her.
Coughing up blood at that precise moment had been entirely unexpected.
‘Of all times?’
Her body had been worn down by crafting the Side Effect Suppressant from the Magic Tower, but she hadn’t realized it had reached this point. Had she known the state she was in, she would have endured it somehow and hidden it. Diena had always been rather insensitive to her own body’s condition.
‘At Rothwell Castle, I couldn’t eat or sleep while using my Superpower. Coughing up blood was practically routine back then.’
She’d continued using her Special Ability without knowing how badly her body was deteriorating, and as a result, she hadn’t realized it was falling apart entirely. Of course, since returning to the past timeline, her condition had improved considerably.
So she was still testing where her limits truly lay. During her time at Castleton Castle, she wouldn’t be able to craft the Side Effect Suppressant for a while, which meant she’d pushed herself too hard making it beforehand—hard enough that her body was now paying the price in exhaustion.
‘Well, setting that aside, how did things end up like this…….’
Barcan stood with his arms crossed, watching her with a displeased expression as though keeping her under surveillance.
“I should come with you.”
That’s what Barcan had said at the time, and he’d made good on his word. He’d immediately sent word to Castleton Castle announcing his visit, then followed her.
“You could still turn back right now, you know?”
“No. I need to keep watch on what you’re scheming. At least that way I can stop you before you do something reckless.”
“I really won’t do anything strange…….”
Though she probably would.
So she desperately wished Barcan would just leave. But the conversation couldn’t continue. They’d already arrived at Castleton Castle.
* * *
“This is irritating.”
Cain pushed himself up, frowning deeply. He had to use his Superpower tonight, no matter what. To do that, he needed sleep, but his mind was too cluttered to rest.
At this rate, he’d face his father’s wrath again. The image of him snapping orders appeared in his mind.
“Cain, you must succeed no matter what.”
Now that everything Romie had been trying to do had fallen apart, if Cain failed too, Balthasar’s irritation would reach its peak.
‘Honestly, what does Romie even do well?’
Even to him, Romie’s ability seemed almost broken. To be able to grip people’s hearts with just the smallest shred of goodwill was absurd.
The problem, however, was that Romie was struggling to build even that small amount of goodwill.
‘She was boasting about betrothing herself to Prince Ardin, but instead she’s complete revulsion from him.’
Cain recalled something that had happened not long ago.
After Prince Ardin’s Rampage at the Winter Banquet had ended in failure, Romie had deliberately bumped into him at a tea party, claiming she’d win his favor.
In that moment, wine splashed onto the Dress she was holding, and Romie waited for Prince Ardin to hand her a Handkerchief. But what she received instead was a look of utter contempt.
“Miss Romie, how unpleasant. I trust you’ll watch where you’re going from now on.”
The instant he witnessed that exchange, Cain knew for certain.
‘That betrothal is dead in the water.’
If he could sense it, then Balthasar surely understood it too—that a betrothal between Romie and Ardin was impossible.
Balthasar’s plans were unraveling one by one. It was inevitable that a man of his cautious nature would be in a foul mood lately.
Making Romie a saint. Controlling the nobility through the Divine Temple’s Side Effect Suppressant. All of it had failed because of Diena, who’d appeared so suddenly at the Winter Banquet.
How had Diena managed to win over the House Cardian’s people and become Malacar’s disciple?
‘Becoming a disciple is one thing, but to have obtained exclusive distribution rights to the Side Effect Suppressant?’
He had to admit she was more shrewd than he’d given her credit for.
‘But even so, thinking I’d fail compared to her seems excessive.’
It rankled him to be compared with the inferior Romie. Her Fascination ability was marginally useful, but her healing skill was pathetic.
By contrast, his Dream Ability and Illusion Ability were both classified as top-tier Special Abilities.
Cain pulled the Bear Doll beside him close to his chest and held it tightly, closing his eyes and imagining pleasant scenarios as he tried to drift off to sleep.
* * *
Elia Castleton, Duke of Castleton.
She did not associate readily with members of the other Five Great Houses. Much of it stemmed from her stubborn nature. She believed the Five Great Houses were corrupt and wished to forge her own path, unlike the other families.
After her husband—of relatively low birth—had died, that conviction had only hardened. As a result, falling out of favor with the Duke of Rothwell was unavoidable.
Yet Elia didn’t concern herself with it. House Castleton had become unprecedentedly wealthy thanks to her acumen.
Recently, however, that situation had changed.
Helio, an elder of the Magic Tower, glanced at Elia’s hands.
They were quite rough for someone who was the head of a ducal house—a result of the Superpower passed down through House Castleton’s bloodline, a gift for craftsmanship.
‘A blacksmith who is also a duke.’
In the past, some had mocked House Castleton because of it, but now their ridicule had transformed into awe.
Currently, House Castleton wielded enough wealth and power that no one dared look down upon them. The finest blacksmith in the empire—that was what people called Elia.
Separate from all this, Helio, who’d come at her summons, muttered with visible displeasure.
“Duke Castleton. For Malacar’s disciple to summon me—what am I supposed to do? Does she even know who I am?”
“It was Miss Diena’s condition. She asked that you be brought here.”
“Hmph. So then why…….”
Helio’s brow furrowed in annoyance.

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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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