Hassen’s brow furrowed in confusion.
"W-Why on earth are you here, milady?"
As if she had finally managed to catch her breath after a long escape, her body went completely limp, and she was trembling violently.
Varkan looked down at her as she gasped for air, his eyes narrowing subtly. Hassen turned to him and asked in a troubled voice, "What should we do, Lord Varkan? Should we notify the Duke of Rothwell?"
The moment she heard those words—
"Help me!"
Diena snapped her eyes open and clung tightly to Varkan's feet.
Varkan’s eyebrows shot up in irritation.
Diena cried out urgently, "If you help me, I'll do anything. If I stay here, I'm going to die. Please!"
Varkan remained silent, staring straight into her eyes.
"Why would staying here mean you'll die?"
Diena’s small hands gripped the hem of Varkan’s clothes. She held on as if she had no intention of ever letting go, her sheer desperation transferring directly to him. It was truly surprising how a body so emaciated could possess such strength.
That was just how desperate Diena was.
"Please take me with you. I can really be of great help, you know? You won't regret taking me."
"What did you say...?"
Varkan was briefly taken aback by Diena's remarkably confident words.
Quickly snapping out of it, he let out a scoffing chuckle. "Well, I'm not really sure what kind of help you could possibly be. Besides, I have no desire to receive help from a kid who looks younger than me."
"But……."
Diena's eyes trembled relentlessly.
She had never expected the Varkan she met again to be the exact same as before. Unlike her, Varkan had absolutely no memories of the past; to him, Diena was merely a young girl he was seeing for the very first time.
Furthermore, hadn't the Varkan of the past frequently told her this?
"When I was young, I was a guy with absolutely zero social skills. It's a real relief that I didn't meet you back then."
Judging by his current demeanor, it was truly impossible to imagine. When she had first met him in her past life, Varkan was deeply caring and mature, despite his playful streak. Varkan had explained that after his family fell into ruin, he had matured significantly while wandering from place to place.
"Thanks to that, my personality softened up a lot. Before that, I was completely obsessed with nothing but getting revenge on the Duke of Rothwell."
Whenever he said that, Hassen would always chime in from the side.
"He's right. If you had met Lord Varkan back then, Lady Diena, you might not have even come to our family. He was a total cold-blooded monster! Seriously, watching him from the side back then, he did things that made me sigh so often..."
"Still, I'm different now, aren't I?"
"Isn't that only when you're in front of Lady Diena? How hypocriti—cough."
So, she had known from the start that he wouldn't treat her kindly right away. Yet, seeing Varkan’s cold gaze treating her like a complete stranger still made her heart ache.
Varkan tilted his head, looking thoroughly annoyed. "Why don't you just return to your family quietly?"
Diena set her jaw firmly and stared back at Varkan.
'Right, I knew it would turn out like this.'
If she were in his shoes and a total stranger suddenly demanded to be taken away, she would have been suspicious first, too.
'Of course, if I keep begging, Varkan will eventually take me.'
Varkan had witnessed the way she was treated at the banquet earlier. That meant he must have deduced to some extent why she wanted to flee her family. However, even if he helped her right now, there was a high probability he wouldn't actually take her to the Kardian estate.
'I can't let that happen. I have to go to the Kardian family.'
Nothing would be solved by simply mulling over it. Rather than relying on his pity, she had to show them a definitive reason to take her along.
'In this life, I will be the one to extend a hand first.'
Having made up her mind, Diena opened her mouth. "You hate my uncle... Balthazar Rothwell, don't you?"
Varkan flinched slightly but nodded without hesitation. "Obviously."
"I know a way to make him absolutely furious."
At those words, a spark of interest flickered in Varkan's eyes. "And what is that?"
"Taking me with you."
The moment the words left her mouth, Varkan scowled. He thought Diena was mocking him.
"You……."
It was then that Malakar let out a sigh and delivered a sharp reprimand. "Varkan, when on earth are you going to fix that cold personality of yours? You should at least hear her story out."
Clicking his tongue, he bent his knees to bring his gaze level with Diena's. "Why do you think you'll die if you go back there? And you seem to be pursued; I am curious as to the reason."
Diena stared blankly at Malakar.
'Master…….'
Seeing his kind face made her throat tighten, and she felt tears threatening to spill over. Everyone here had a face she knew so intimately. It was only natural, since they were the people of the Kardian family.
She carefully scanned Malakar's face.
'He doesn't look well. He's in a state where he needs to take a suppressant immediately.'
If that was the case, persuading them would be even easier.
'This was my plan from the very beginning anyway.'
There was no time for verbal explanations. The clamorous presence of the searching soldiers was drawing closer by the second.
"I’ll show you exactly why taking me with you will make the Duke of Rothwell furious."
"What does that mean?"
Without a moment of hesitation, Diena reached out and grabbed Malakar's hand. In that instant, Malakar’s entire body froze.
When he first became an ability user, everything had been wonderful. It felt as though he could hold the entire world in his hands.
He had been the heir to a high and mighty marquisate. However, because he failed to awaken an ability initially, he was cast out by his family.
"Malakar, a noble who cannot awaken an ability is no noble at all."
"You are nothing but a piece of filth, worse than a commoner who awakens a low-tier ability."
The life of a powerless non-ability user cast out by their family is miserable. Fortunately, he possessed a talent for magic and embarked on the path of a mage.
But was it a cruel twist of fate? After entering the Magic Tower and gaining recognition as a mage, his special ability finally manifested. An awakening after the age of fourteen—it was an exceptionally rare case. On top of that, to be both a mage and an ability user meant everyone looked up to him. He no longer had anything to fear in the world.
However, that joy did not last long. The horrifying agony that began after his ability awakened had pursued him like a shadow for the rest of his life, to the point where he felt it would have been better to remain a non-ability user.
Darkness accumulated the more he used his power. Without a side-effect suppressant to push it down, maintaining a normal daily life was near impossible.
That was undeniably the reality... up until just a moment ago.
'What did this child just do to me……?'
Malakar's eyes snapped wide open.
The moment the small girl grabbed his hand, the hellish agony that had weighed down on him for a lifetime began to vanish one by one, like a tangled ball of thread unravelling. The darkness that had been deeply embedded within his body for so long melted away and dispersed. It felt exactly as if warm sunlight were cascading down upon a lake frozen solid in the dead of winter.
"T-This, what on earth……."
Experiencing such a phenomenon for the first time in his life, a mixture of bewilderment and awe crossed Malakar's face simultaneously. Varkan knitted his brows, tilting his head in confusion.
"Old man Malakar?"
Just then, the shouting of the soldiers echoed over.
"Where is she hiding?!"
The moment the three of them locked eyes, Malakar spoke up in an urgent voice.
"For now, hide her in the carriage."
"……Pardon?"
"It is just as this child said. If we take this girl, it will be more than enough to make the Duke of Rothwell furious."
There was no time to explain. Malakar quickly took Diena and hid themselves inside the carriage.
