Favored by the Family That Will Become the Strongest! - Chapter 91

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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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“Hmm, a Non-Ability User? A commoner? Or perhaps…”
As Diena pondered this, Barcan—who had been muttering to himself—turned to her and opened his mouth, fixing her with an intent gaze.
“Or perhaps… me?”
“You?”
Caught off guard by his sudden remark, Diena’s eyes widened. Barcan was equally startled—the words had escaped him unbidden.
Yet upon reflection, it didn’t seem entirely wrong either. Moreover, he and Diena had been bound by contract from the start.
‘Though by now it’s become meaningless.’
When Sevar had hired her as his personal Healer, the old agreement had dissolved.
Still, that made way for a new contract.
‘Better to keep her at my side than let her stumble into some other fool.’
The desire to keep her close and protect her was something he’d harbored all along, and a betrothal would be the perfect instrument for it. Having rationalized matters away, Barcan continued.
“Don’t you think Duke Rothwell would be rather upset if we two were to become engaged?”
“…”
“Quite upset, actually. So angry he wouldn’t sleep, wouldn’t you say? Hmm?”
“That is…”
“Duke Rothwell, seething and half-mad with fury—now that would be worth seeing. We’d be making a fool of him together. What do you say?”
She blinked at him, watching. His words were remarkably similar to something he’d once said in her past life.
Her own self-deprecation moments ago seemed absurd in hindsight; his playful proposition made her heart begin to race—to the point where she almost wanted to feign ignorance and simply agree.
When Diena remained silent for a long moment, Barcan narrowed his eyes and spoke.
“Diena. You’re not thinking you can’t use me, are you?”
Diena drew in a breath and stilled her movements.
In her past life, Barcan had sometimes acted as though he could read her very thoughts.
And now the Barcan of this life was doing the same.
“You wouldn’t be using me—I would be. So don’t reject me for some petty reason like that. Don’t say another word.”
“But you have no reason to use me, do you? Being engaged to me brings you no gain.”
Diena was right. This arrangement benefited her entirely, and Barcan would gain nothing from it.
So he flinched for a moment, then—
“Must everything be about gain? Does a person really need to calculate every step that carefully?”
He glanced away as he spoke. Diena’s eyes narrowed. For someone who managed a trading house, Barcan was typically far more calculating than most. Such words didn’t suit him at all.
Yet Barcan pressed on, shameless.
“If you need reasons so badly, I already told you. I want to see how much your uncle despises it.”
“My uncle would be upset if I became engaged to anyone he didn’t approve of, regardless of who it was.”
Whether he’d offered his hand in her past life or was doing so now, Barcan’s reasoning always lacked conviction.
“I don’t care. Just do it with me.”
“What?”
Even Barcan knew his argument had no logic. But since he couldn’t understand his own thoughts, he abandoned persuasion and simply began to insist.
“Just… let’s…”
Mid-sentence, his eyes widened and he seized Diena’s arm, dragging her close to his side. At that same moment, a familiar voice reached her ear.
“Diena. What are you doing here?”
Her gaze turned slowly.
“Kasian.”
Kasian Volkov. He stood before them in a uniform bearing the temple’s insignia across his chest.
“The Holy Knights Order.”
“What business brings those bastards here?”
At his appearance, the patrons in the tavern exchanged uneasy glances and began to slip away.
Regardless, Kasian’s piercing gaze fixed on Barcan, then turned back to Diena.
“Together with him, no less.”
Diena found the emotion in his eyes incomprehensible.
He was acting as though he felt hurt by her.
Barcan responded with a cynical smile.
“That bastard? Kasian Volkov. Is that a challenge?”
“You’re not comparing me to those pathetic wretches who tremble at your every word, are you?”
Sparks flew between the two men’s gazes. Watching this uncomfortable scene, Diena let out a deep sigh.
‘I didn’t expect to run into him here.’
In truth, she had already known Kasian would come to this place. Tracking down Necromancers made it inevitable.
He too would be hunting for a Necromancer on Balthasar’s orders.
‘But I didn’t anticipate meeting him like this, right now.’
It was a troublesome twist of fate.
He frowned and pressed for an answer.
“I asked what you’re doing here. Surely you know how dangerous it is beyond the Purification District.”
As he spoke, he surveyed the surroundings with obvious distaste.
Those who had met his gaze picked up on the tension and filed out of the tavern.
The nobility believed that stepping beyond the Purification District meant risking Corruption itself.
It was not an unfounded fear.
Outside the Purification District, the darkness born from Ability Users accumulated far more swiftly than within. Consequently, they were even more reluctant to venture beyond its boundaries.
“No matter how harmless it supposedly is to Non-Ability Users…”
Muttering thus, Kasian’s gaze shifted to Barcan. His voice carried unmistakable displeasure.
“But he’s not one of them, is he? If Barcan were to enter a Rampage, what then? Why are you wandering about with him?”
As Barcan’s brow furrowed, Diena spoke in a measured tone.
“Whatever he does to me if he enters a Rampage—that’s none of your concern.”
At her words, Barcan flinched without meaning to. Kasian, meanwhile, stared at her with evident alarm.
“Come with me, Diena. At least I’ll be safer than him. You shouldn’t be here. Let me take you somewhere secure.”
Kasian placed his hand on his sword. Barcan rose to meet him, Innate Ability flaring to life. Diena looked at Kasian and spoke in a glacial voice.
“Why would I go with you?”
Kasian regarded her with incomprehension.
“Have you forgotten? We’re to be betrothed. Of course it’s intolerable for you to be with him.”
Diena’s eyes hardened.
Kasian genuinely intended to become engaged to her. And he harbored not the slightest doubt about it.
Perhaps he even saw it as an opportunity.
‘Maybe he thinks he’s finally being compensated for all those years of acting as my uncle’s lapdog.’
Which only made it worse.
“Kasian. Have you forgotten? You and I are nothing to each other. We’re not even engaged yet. How can you be so certain we will be?”
“Duke Rothwell promised it to me.”
“That’s my uncle’s will, not my own.”
Kasian’s brow furrowed. In that single reaction, Diena understood. He was genuinely taken aback.
‘Reading his true feelings from that expressionless face—how deeply I hate it.’
Uncomfortably distant as they were, they had spent more than half their lives together as husband and wife in some form, making it natural to perceive his emotions. And yet it remained disagreeable.
But why? Now, Kasian’s face bore wounds she had not seen in either her past life or this one.

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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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