Favored by the Family That Will Become the Strongest! - Chapter 97

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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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“…….”
When Cassian remained silent for a long time, Barcan opened his mouth with an indifferent expression.
“Actually, I’m not curious about your answer. I was just telling you to shut up.”
“You bastard…….”
“You’ll be here with me for quite some time. Thought it’d be better if you were quiet.”
As he spoke, Barcan smiled coldly.
“Let’s finish what we started earlier. I owe you a punch to the face.”
Barcan’s words turned to action immediately. He kicked off the ground and threw his right fist toward Cassian’s face.
The air screamed. Cassian tried to turn his head and dodge, but it was already too late. Barcan’s fist connected precisely with his left jaw.
Crack!
Along with a dull, wet sound, blood and saliva sprayed into the air. Cassian’s head snapped back, and he glared at Barcan with a grimace.
Words were no longer necessary. Both bodies launched toward each other.
* * *
Deep in the forest, Demian was dying. He barely clung to consciousness, but even that had its limits.
‘So this is what Runaway feels like.’
His body no longer obeyed his will.
His mind was still conscious, but his body craved blood. It felt as though darkness was piloting his flesh. Each Ability User’s Runaway manifests differently, he’d been told—and his had appeared in its worst form.
Demian moved his body slowly. He truly wanted to stop this Runaway, but he could not.
He knew what would come next. Regardless of his will, his own body would soon slaughter countless people.
‘I was an idiot to believe the Duke of Rothwell when he said he’d give me a Side-Effect Suppressant if he found me here.’
The moment he arrived at this place, his darkness had begun to rampage for reasons he couldn’t fathom. In that instant, Demian realized he’d fallen into some kind of trap.
The urgency of perhaps going into Runaway had clouded his judgment. It was too late for regrets. Each time he moved, the corpses within the Tomb stirred as if trying to rise.
‘To stop this Runaway of mine, someone from the Five Major Houses would need to come…….’
It was a power he hated, yet in another way, it was strong enough to inspire pride. That made him feel it all the more acutely: there was no one who could stop him.
Then a girl appeared before him.
‘Huh?’
The girl looked genuinely frail. It was incomprehensible how she’d even entered this place.
Demian was genuinely flustered. He’d never imagined someone would enter his domain at a time like this.
He wanted to close his eyes at once. But his body wouldn’t move by his will.
So he was forced to watch. The undead moving by his Innate Ability were rushing at the girl as if they would consume her in an instant.
And in that moment. He saw it.
‘Huh?’
The power he’d always taken pride in. Today it had made him helpless, had sunk him into self-loathing. But the light pouring from her hands rendered all of that meaningless in a single instant, subduing the undead.
She’d displayed a far stronger power—one that neutralized his own. Reeling from the shock, she began to walk toward Demian.
And the moment the girl’s body touched his.
Demian was frozen solid by the impact.
There was a reason Diena hadn’t brought Barcan with her. In truth, she was more confident than anyone in facing Demian.
‘Purification and Necromancy are completely opposite forces. Dealing with Demian is almost too easy.’
This too was something Demian himself had told her.
“A Purification Ability? Wow, if I’d met you when I was healthy, I wouldn’t have been able to do anything—I would’ve been subdued outright.”
“Really?”
“If it were the old me, I might’ve pretended not to feel pretty inferior. Honestly, all Ability Users live off their own arrogance.”
“Is that so.”
“It’s true. Those proud Five Major House bastards probably thought I was something even they couldn’t stop. But imagine being beaten by some weakling you’ve never seen before. They probably couldn’t speak properly from the shock.”
“…….”
“Your Innate Ability and mine are complete opposites.”
Diena watched the undead that touched her fingertips turn instantly into ordinary skulls.
Even Demian, staring at the sight with a vacant expression.
She walked toward him slowly.
Soon her hand came to rest on Demian’s shoulder.
And then.
“Purification.”
* * *
From the shoulder where her hand had touched, a wave of scorching sensation swept through him. As the darkness receded, his fingers began to move by his own will.
Demian regained control of his body in an instant.
‘This feels good. I want to feel it a little more.’
That thought crossed his mind.
At the same time, he felt the darkness inside his body disappear. The girl before him was, in a word, someone his Innate Ability simply couldn’t touch.
Gratitude for the one who’d stopped his Runaway crashed into him alongside fear. An Innate Ability that wouldn’t work meant that before her, he was no different from an ordinary person.
The fact that the girl looked like the sort of noble he usually despised didn’t matter now. He was far too disoriented.
“Wow, what is this? It feels good, but it’s disgusting. I feel like some helpless idiot who can’t do anything.”
“That’s because your Innate Ability and mine are opposites.”
Demian looked up at the girl with an open, vacant mouth. Then she began coughing violently, her hand covering her lips.
“Cough, cough!”
“What, what’s wrong?”
Without thinking, Demian stood up and steadied her.
“Are you all right?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. It happens all the time.”
“All the time……?”
So startled was Demian that he didn’t even notice they’d slipped into casual speech with each other. Much less how natural it sounded.
Diena didn’t give him time to think. She opened her mouth to him.
“You know you owe me your life, right?”
“Uh, huh?”
“Then you’ll join my side?”
“I, I……?”
“Of course you will. You have a life debt to repay.”
Demian furrowed his brow, then nodded shortly after. Something felt off, but he somehow knew he had to listen to her.
“……What do I have to do?”
“Use Soul Binding for me. Can you do it?”
This time, he was truly shocked.
Even having witnessed his savior wielding an extraordinary power, Demian couldn’t help but be startled.
Soul Binding was a technique he’d discovered recently. It was a kind of seal cast using his Innate Ability, and he’d only learned of it not long ago—so how could this girl know of it?
No matter how he thought about it, it made no sense.
In all his years of mercenary work, he’d encountered many Ability Users, but never someone this inscrutable, this incomprehensible.
“Answer me quickly.”
“I can do it, but why……?”
Demian nodded uncertainly. At his answer, the girl nodded firmly and began a brief explanation.

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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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