The punishment room was damp and freezing. A chill that pierced straight to her bones cut through her tattered, rag-like clothes. In this pitch-black space without a single sliver of light, any ordinary person would have already been paralyzed by fear. However, a faint smile played on Diena's lips.
'I’m glad Romie’s personality is as violent as ever. And I'm lucky the Duchess and Cain are the exact same kind of human beings.'
Diena already knew that if she showed herself in front of the Five Great Families, something like this would happen. She had also anticipated that Romie would throw a tantrum and lock her in the punishment room, since being confined in this place was normally the punishment she feared most.
Even though she knew all the facts, Diena had provoked Romie on purpose.
'Because there is a secret passage here.'
Diena gently felt along the cold stone wall. When she tapped the wall in a specific, rhythmic sequence, the bricks instantly began to split apart. The firmly shut passage then swung open.
"Goodbye, Rothwell."
Leaving those words behind, Diena stepped into the darkness. The bricks shifted once more, and the door slammed shut in an instant, looking as though nothing had ever happened.
Diena was walking rapidly through the secret passage, holding her breath. It didn't take long before an uncontrollable uproar began to erupt from inside the Rothwell estate.
"Diena is nowhere to be found!"
"Where on earth did she run away to?!"
Perhaps because certain parts of the past were changing, her escape was discovered much faster than before.
Diena froze at the exit of the passage. Through the cracks in the dirt and stone wall, she could hear the muffled conversations echoing from inside the castle.
She heard Edelyn’s irritated voice.
"What does it matter if that child disappeared? It’s just one useless, powerless non-ability user gone."
Then came the voice of a man answering her.
"Quiet! You know as well as I do that there are cases where abilities awaken late! If she happens to be an ability user, we cannot simply let her run wild."
Diena froze at the sound of the familiar voice.
'It's Uncle's voice.'
The Duke of Rothwell, Balthazar, roared as if shouting.
"An ability user is an asset to our duchy by default! Even if she isn't one, that girl must remain in the palm of my hand until the very moment her breath stops!"
A bitter smile formed on Diena's lips. She had once again confirmed that to them, she was not family, but a piece of property whose value had to be calculated. The words that followed caused her expression to harden completely.
"Search the entire castle immediately! Blockade the entrance. Bring Diena back to me!"
Keeping her body low, she pressed forward through the darkness.
'Varkan should be heading toward the eastern mountain range. In my past life, he said he visited the Magic Tower with his master right after this banquet.'
To get to the Magic Tower, one had to cross the eastern mountain range. While she had some measure of confidence, ominous thoughts kept creeping into her mind.
'What if the past doesn't flow the exact same way?'
Diena squeezed her eyes shut.
'No, I can escape. Even if it's not this time, I will absolutely break free from this place. Absolutely.'
It was at that exact moment. Barely a few steps after slipping out from the dirt wall of the secret passage, a sharp shout echoed from behind her.
"There she is!"
The ones who discovered her presence first were two guards carrying torches. Their eyes met. Under the glare of the torchlight, her figure was exposed in an instant.
On a night where snow flurries scattered in all directions, she ran with every ounce of her strength. The freezing air pierced her throat like a claw, and the snow crunched sharply beneath her feet.
"She’s running that way! Catch her!"
Diena gritted her teeth. Her eyes gleamed. As an ability user of Purification, she possessed the innate capacity to sense darkness. Therefore, whenever other ability users appeared, she could discern their positions.
And right now.
'I can feel the darkness!'
Only Varkan possessed a darkness this dense. He was close by.
She simply ran forward, and forward. She didn't even dare to look back. She hadn't even eaten properly, yet she had no idea where this strength was coming from. Darting through the trees, she threw her body forward as she leapt.
The fierce wind whipped her face. Her vision grew blurry with snow and tears. The hem of her dress caught on tree branches and tore away.
'Just a little... just a little further and Varkan will be there...!'
Her heart throbbed frantically and her legs ached as though they were about to break, but she couldn’t stop. Behind her, the shouting of the soldiers and the sound of heavy footsteps still pursued her.
The moment she had been sprinting for what felt like an eternity—
The snow beneath her feet suddenly gave way. Diena tumbled downward, unable to even let out a scream.
Varkan knitted his brows at the harsh blizzard. The weather had been utterly dreadful for the past few days.
"The weather is just as garbage as the state of my family."
At Varkan's sharp words, his adjutant, Hassen, flinched in surprise.
"We are still within the territory of the Rothwell family! What will you do if someone overhears you?"
"Who cares? Seeing the way they behave, they deserve to be cursed out."
Varkan scowled. Diena's shabby, tattered appearance—which had stood out in stark contrast to Romie’s extravagant dress—flickered through his mind.
'Did they say she was the daughter of the missing former Duke of Rothwell?'
Even if they were relatives, watching the members of the ducal family treat her like a low-ranking housemaid made him sick to his stomach. Especially when he considered the suspicious circumstances under which the former Duke of Rothwell had gone missing.
Hassen scanned their surroundings before saying in a low voice, "I told you, now that your social status has risen, you shouldn't talk like that."
"I’m originally a guy with no proper roots anyway, so it doesn't matter if I speak like this."
"Lord Varkan!"
"That damn status... I’d rather tell them to take it back. My father never wanted a title like Duke in the first place."
"Still, thanks to that, Lady Bianca was able to receive proper treatment, wasn't she?"
"And the Duke of Rothwell is using that treatment as bait to play games. Toying with a human life."
Hassen shut his mouth at Varkan's razor-sharp words. Letting out a sigh, he changed the subject.
"What do you plan to do now? Are we heading straight to the Kardian estate?"
Varkan stared at the fork in the road ahead. The path stretching to the right crossed over the rugged eastern mountain range and led toward the Imperial Capital. If they turned left, they could head toward the Kardian estate located in the north.
'But…….'
Varkan shifted his gaze to check on Malakar's condition. The elderly man’s deathly pale complexion and the deep shadows rimming his eyes made it clear that his current state was far from ordinary.
"No, I plan to head straight to the Imperial Capital without stopping by the estate. Old man Malakar nags far too much, so I need to send him back quickly. Besides, the old man's suppressants have completely run out. For a mage, he sure needs a lot of side-effect suppressants for someone else's special ability. What a troublesome old man."
At those words, Malakar let out a hollow chuckle.
"You brat. Anyone who looks at your personality wouldn't be able to stop nagging. You live your life as if you’re the only brilliant one in the whole world."
"Still, I believe I'm a whole lot better than those bastards in the Rothwell family."
Watching the two, Hassen asked in a worried voice, "Are you alright, Lord Malakar? It looks like the effects of the suppressant you took earlier are wearing off. I think we delayed too much time during our visit to the Rothwell family."
"It is still bearable."
"Even so, if your condition continues to worsen, you must tell us immediately. Promising me?"
Malakar smiled faintly. "Yes, I understand."
"He's right, old man. Don't keep quiet only to go into a rampage later," Varkan muttered gruffly, his brow suddenly furrowing deeply. His gaze snapped toward the edge of the forest. "It's strangely noisy over there. Did something happen?"
"Noisy? I don't hear anything at all."
"No. Rothwell's soldiers are chasing something. And it's getting closer to where we are right now."
Hassen tilted his head in confusion. Malakar, who had been standing silently until then, chimed in.
"Since his senses are far sharper than a normal human's, he must be hearing something."
In that instant, Varkan's eyes narrowed again. He could feel a presence that had grown distinctly clearer. He raised his hand and pointed toward the top of the hill.
"What is that?"
Everyone's gaze shifted in that direction. Rolling down the pristine white snow was... a snowball.
Finally, it reached the gentle incline of the flat ground. Peering from a distance at the object exposed through the cracked snow, Varkan said nonchalantly:
"Isn't that a rabbit? It looks kind of scruffy, like a rabbit."
"What? What do you mean a rabbit? Anyone can see that's a person!"
Startled, Hassen rushed over quickly and barely managed to gather the snowball—no, the person—into his arms. It was a young girl dressed in scruffy, tattered clothes.
Upon confirming the girl's face, Varkan murmured:
"Diena Rothwell?"
