Chapter 31

Ordinarily, this was the sort of situation Varkan would handle.

But since his arrival was delayed…

‘Let’s just stall for time until Varkan gets here.’

Thinking that, Diena opened her mouth.

“That’s enough. For people who call themselves nobles, your behavior seems worse than that of a commoner like me.”

She intended to draw everyone’s attention away from Bianca and toward herself.

If these people already knew she was the Rothwell young lady, then perhaps it was fine to be a little reckless.

It would attract attention more effectively, too.

As expected, the nobles stared at her in shock.

Eshina spoke in a cold voice.

“Unbelievable. Are you acting like this because you’re relying on Lady Bianca?”

“Is that really all you have to be proud of? Your status and your ability?”

“Isn’t that everything? What else do I need?”

“So that’s all you are. Someone who judges and evaluates people based only on status and abilities.”

“And?”

“You decide a person’s worth that way.”

“What are you even talking about?”

“If you keep behaving so carelessly, you’re going to regret it someday. Who knows? Maybe the person you’re looking down on will become an extraordinary Ability User.”

Diena was speaking what was, in her own way, the truth.

But no one paid attention to her words.

“This is becoming impossible to listen to.”

At that moment, the person who reacted most strongly was Daniel.

The memory of what she had done to him resurfaced.

Daniel instinctively realized something.

This was his last chance to get revenge on Diena.

If she returned to House Rothwell, he would never have another opportunity like this.

So he stepped forward dramatically and spoke.

“Lady Bianca, I’m disappointed.”

“…Disappointed?”

“How exactly did you raise your maid for her to dare speak to nobles this way? Can’t you see how upset Lady Eshina is? Why aren’t you punishing your maid? This won’t do.”

As he spoke, Daniel strode toward Diena with a threatening air.

‘Looks like he’s trying to get revenge for last time.’

Diena’s gaze followed him upward.

She watched his triumphant smile.

She watched him slowly raise his hand.

“How dare a commoner run her mouth like that!”

Then Daniel violently swung his arm.

‘I’ll pay you back several times over later. Definitely.’

Thinking that, Diena tightly shut her eyes and braced herself for the pain she expected to come.

But no matter how much time passed, she felt nothing.

“Aaagh!”

Instead, a scream rang out.

Startled, Diena blinked and opened her eyes.

The sight before her was unbelievable.

“…Lady Bianca?”

Bianca was gripping Daniel’s wrist.

That should have been impossible.

Daniel wasn’t particularly high ranked, but he was still an Ability User.

Yet Bianca had stopped him with one hand.

He hadn’t stopped himself out of consideration for Bianca either.

Tremble.

Daniel’s arm shook faintly in Bianca’s grip.

He had been completely overpowered by her strength.

And Diena immediately realized why.

From Bianca’s body…

A black haze was rising.

* * *

Bianca slowly blinked.

‘Diena is being bullied because of me.’

Yet she couldn’t do anything.

Like an idiot, she was just standing there watching Diena get mistreated.

She was pathetic.

A coward.

Diena had stepped forward for her sake.

Yet she herself was doing nothing.

She saw Daniel approaching Diena.

She saw him reaching out toward her.

She knew.

Soon, her brother Varkan would arrive and refuse to let anyone here get away with this.

But…

‘Am I just going to watch again?’

At that moment…

For some reason, Varkan’s words came back to her.

“What’s it feel like when your ability awakens? You’ll never forget it. It’s exhilarating.”

Bianca felt as though the entire world had stopped.

The accusing stares directed at her.

The noisy voices around her.

She couldn’t see them.

She couldn’t hear them.

The only thing she could see was Daniel approaching Diena.

And she felt something.

She felt as though she could stop him.

The moment that thought crossed her mind…

Whoosh-

Her body moved according to her will.

There had been quite a distance between them.

A distance no ordinary person could have crossed in an instant.

Yet Bianca covered it in that brief moment.

She seized Daniel’s wrist.

“Aaagh!”

Her grip was strong enough to crush it.

“L-Let go!”

Daniel screamed, but Bianca didn’t release him.

Only when she heard Diena’s voice did she come back to her senses.

“Lady Bianca?”

Bianca turned her head.

“Are you okay, Diena?”

“Yes, I’m fine. What about you, my lady?”

“I… I’m fine. No, not just fine. I feel amazing.”

Bianca roughly shoved Daniel’s hand away and turned around.

The eyes fixed on her were filled with unconcealable shock and disbelief.

“What was that? How did she move like that?”

“Did I see that wrong?”

“Could it be… an ability?”

Bianca gently helped Diena back into her seat.

Then she fixed her gaze on Daniel again.

He was clutching the wrist Bianca had grabbed, grimacing as though it hurt badly.

Diena looked at Bianca.

The black haze that had risen from her body had completely disappeared.

‘It seemed like she used an ability for a brief moment…’

It couldn’t have been a complete awakening.

Her Darkness Corruption hadn’t been fully cured yet.

For some reason, she seemed to have awakened temporarily.

Bianca herself was staring at her own hand.

As if what had just happened had been a lie, her body had returned to normal, and she once again felt powerless.

Then Daniel shouted with a flushed face.

“W-What do you think you’re doing, Bianca?!”

Yet unlike before, he couldn’t easily move.

What he had just witnessed was far too strange to belong to a Non-Ability User.

No one understood that better than the person who had experienced it firsthand.

His wrist still throbbed with pain where she had grabbed it.

And while everyone stood there staring at Bianca in confusion…

A low voice rang out.

“What exactly do you think you’re doing?”

Everyone turned toward the source of the voice.

Varkan was standing there with his arms crossed.

His cold eyes swept across the crowd.

Everywhere his gaze landed, the young ladies and young masters swallowed their screams and stepped back.

None of them had expected Varkan to appear here.

“You.”

His eyes locked onto Daniel.

“What were you doing just now? Did you really raise your voice at my sister?”

Having been singled out by Varkan, Daniel turned deathly pale.

His knees began to shake.

“L-Lord Varkan, w-what brings you h-here…?”

“I asked if you raised your voice at my sister.”

Varkan irritably lifted his head.