Chapter 342 – #75_Pride And Prejudice
#340
1.
Diana returned home through the portal with light steps.
She was so happy that she walked as if flying, 1.2 times faster than her usual pace.
It was just past noon, and according to her promise with Count Yesod, she should have been out and about.
But today was a special occasion.
It was a day to reward herself.
She had engaged in a heated duel that made her head spin, and above all, emotions tend to drain one’s energy.
Having gone through an emotional rollercoaster of frustration, agony, despair, and joy since morning, Diana was more exhausted than anyone and felt she deserved a break as a reward.
Thus, Diana was floating in the private pool of the Levana Grand Bath.
She held a bunch of grapes in one hand, picking and eating them one by one, celebrating her joy.
“Ah~ Sweet~ So sweet~”
The grapes tasted exceptionally sweet today.
It was truly a thrilling and decisive victory.
Especially since she had crushed an opponent she particularly wanted to teach a lesson to.
“Pfft…!”
Diana chuckled, recalling Siwoo’s blank face.
The expression he made when she said, ‘I don’t play games with scrubs,’ was priceless.
“Puh… Pfft…! Hehe…!”
In fact, one of Diana’s scores was earned when she didn’t even know the rules properly.
“So what?”
She was too lazy to play another match.
And ultimately, Diana was the victor.
That was enough.
“The world is judged by results, after all. Hehe…!”
Diana smiled brightly and lay comfortably on the sunbed.
How long had it been since she had experienced such peace?
The warm, flowing water of the hot spring under the glass dome.
Relaxing among the lush tropical trees and flowers, the sky was her roof, and the refreshing scent of flowers was her blanket.
Normally, she would have drifted off to sleep, but today she had something to do.
“Hehe, shall we review the great match we had today?”
It didn’t require much effort.
Watching the replay and admiring her own brilliant plays.
In other words, it was time for a replay wank.
Diana turned on the position board crystal she had brought with her and recalled the morning’s match with a pounding heart.
She had been so out of it, but she still remembered the moves they had both made.
She relived the thrilling moments, making each move again.
Diana, fiercely attacking!
Her opponent, fiercely counterattacking!
Diana, realizing she was on the defensive!
But using her opponent’s mistake to counterattack and achieve a magnificent victory… that moment!
“Huh?”
Diana’s face, which had been smiling and twitching, frowned.
She felt a strange unease that she hadn’t noticed during the match.
It was the part where Siwoo had made a series of mistakes and Diana had counterattacked.
It was like a fish bone stuck between her teeth, a strange discomfort that kept poking at her tongue.
Diana repeatedly replayed the part where Siwoo had made those blunders.
“Huh…?”
But the more she did it… the stranger it felt.
Something was off.
There was a suspicious smell in the air.
During the match, Diana didn’t have the capacity to think about anything else.
Her head was exhausted from the chaotic battle, and she was simply pleased with Siwoo’s mistakes in that dire situation.
But after the game.
After cooling her head a bit and looking at it carefully, she felt a strong sense of unease.
Diana calmly organized her thoughts.
Q. Why did he launch a reckless attack without securing his magic at that moment?
A. Because he didn’t realize he had the advantage.
So far, so good.
But.
Q. Then why did he engage in combat at a small skirmish site where Diana had already gained the upper hand, and even to steal unnecessary runes?
A. …… Why?
That was the question.
The opponent didn’t know the basics of the position board.
But he clearly understood what magic was.
Otherwise, he would have collapsed helplessly when Diana started the chaotic battle.
So, this move was strange.
It was too clumsy and extremely emotional compared to the sharp image he had shown so far.
“Could it be….”
Diana’s face turned pale.
Her heart denied it, but her reason was screaming.
“He let me win?”
He deliberately made subtle mistakes to wait for her?
Diana reset the position board and started reviewing it again from the beginning.
However, this time she had a different premise.
‘What if he deliberately threw the game in the last match?’
Then, the moves she had thought were meaningless blunders looked different.
Siwoo’s moves were focused only on areas that were not entirely meaningless but had significantly low importance.
And these moves were subtle.
If 1 was a bad move and 10 was a brilliant move, these moves would be rated around 6 or 7 points.
In other words, they were ambiguous moves that Diana wouldn’t notice as ‘the opponent is deliberately losing’ at that point.
Was this really a mistake?
Could such precise mistakes really be called mistakes?
Diana tried to deny the reality and thought about it again and again.
But the more she reviewed it, the clearer the truth became.
Her bright smile was gone.
The grapes in Diana’s hand were crushed, pitifully dripping juice.
“How dare he… let me win?”
It was 99% certain.
Siwoo had not given his all from the point where his victory was practically assured.
Rather, he had subtly created openings for counterattacks and naturally chose to lose.
Diana, who knew nothing, had firmly believed it was her opponent’s mistake and had happily accepted the victory that was handed to her.
And to make matters worse, she had teased and even given him advice.
“Ugh, my head is throbbing….”
Diana felt dizzy.
She felt anger at the thought of being looked down upon.
She felt shame at her own ignorant and excited behavior.
She was shocked at having lost to a newbie who had only been playing for three days.
In any case, all sorts of complex emotions swirled like a storm.
How pathetic must she have looked, giving advice in front of such an opponent and jumping for joy after winning?
She was embarrassed.
She felt humiliated.
“I’m going to go find him right now and…!”
Diana, who was planning to find out the truth and challenge him again without letting her guard down, jumped up from the sunbed, grinding her teeth.
But when she thought about it….
‘Oh? Are you not coming tomorrow?’
‘Why would I? I already won? I’m sorry, but I don’t like bullying people who are worse than me…. Well then, it was quite fun.’
…She had even said such nonsense.
In this state, would she go back on the same day or the next day to request a rematch?
Her face, already bright red, would explode with humiliation.
And what if she put on a brave face and requested a rematch, only to be defeated again?
Diana didn’t have the confidence to endure that humiliation and mortification.
“Hoo…. Hoo….”
Diana calmed her pounding heart and got out of the water.
Regardless of her anger, she had to admit it.
The opponent she had been prejudiced against and ignored was clearly a formidable foe.
At least a mutant capable of a 50/50 match.
Her mistake was that she had been too complacent until now.
Diana changed her clothes.
She took a thick book and locked herself in her room.
At this moment, there was no laziness or idleness.
The position board was ultimately decided by magical knowledge.
To repay this humiliation, she would not hesitate to study for eight hours, she vowed, and opened the book.
2.
Count Deneb Geminai and Count Lucy Yesod’s tea party.
After talking about business for a long time, the two sorted out the documents they had prepared and were now chatting.
“Do you know how admirable Diana has been lately?”
“Oh my, what happened?”
Count Lucy smiled broadly as she ate a spoonful of Chancellor’s pudding with plenty of caramel syrup.
Deneb assumed that Count Yesod was starting to brag about her exceptional daughter again, so she nodded and accepted it.
“Well, as Count Deneb knows, our Diana is very smart and pretty, but she also has a very sluggish personality.”
“I remember you talking about that a lot.”
“I thought this wouldn’t do, so I scolded her sternly and sent her out. I told her to go out after breakfast and not come back until dinner.”
“Ah.”
“But she’s already kept her promise for a whole week, you know? She’s doing well outside. For a whole week.”
Deneb blinked her wide eyes and gave a belated, awkward smile.
She was waiting for the next thing to be said, but that was the end of it.
Was it so admirable that she was playing outside?
As someone who had to chase after an apprentice witch who would disappear like a sheep that had jumped over the fence if she took her eyes off her for even a moment, Deneb found it hard to sympathize.
She had a happy face as if she had everything, so it was awkward to interrupt her, so she just agreed with her.
“Oh my…. That’s really admirable.”
“Right? Right?”
Count Lucy continued to explain to Deneb for a long time how diligently Diana was going around.
Then, as if she had suddenly remembered something, she asked Deneb.
“Oh, my goodness, I have something I wanted to ask you.”
“Yes, if it’s something I can answer.”
“I know that the Geminai family is close to that male witch.”
“You mean Mr. Shin Siwoo? He’s an important guest and benefactor, so of course.”
He had saved the twins’ lives, and he was also someone the twins liked and followed around.
“Yes, that man. He’s not a strange person, is he?”
“Is there a problem?”
“Lately, Diana has been going to the host bar every morning to meet that man. They say they play position board together, but I’m worried he might be a bad guy like a wolf…. I’m worried.”
“He’s not a bad person, so you don’t have to worry too much. He’s a rare, upright young man these days.”
“Is that so? Then why is he working at a host bar….”
“I know he did that to help a friend.”
That was a very Lucy-like concern, she thought.
At the same time, she could sympathize with this topic.
Didn’t Deneb also worry that the twins were spending too much time with Siwoo?
Of course, now that she trusted him, she even allowed them to travel together.
“Is it possible that Diana is showing interest in Mr. Siwoo? I mean… as a potential partner?”
She was secretly worried that even Yesod’s apprentice witch might have her eyes on Siwoo, so she asked casually.
Count Lucy’s reaction to that was firm.
“That’s impossible!”
She slammed the table and jumped up from her seat.
“How picky do you think my daughter is? She’s just curious about him because he’s a male witch, that’s all.”
Well, if it was Count Lucy’s daughter, that was plausible.
She was a stereotypical witch, even among the orthodox witches, more so than any witch Deneb knew.
And she remembered that Diana was no less so.
“Don’t worry too much. He’s a former slave, so he understands the physiology of Gehenna well. He’s not someone who would do anything reckless.”
“Whew, I feel relieved that Deneb said that. Still, I should see his face soon.”
It was natural to cherish and love her apprentice witch, but Count Yesod seemed to be a bit excessive….
Deneb took a sip of her black tea and hid a wry smile.
“You’ll be surprised when you see him in person. He’s really handsome.”
“Hmph, men are all the same.”
3.
As the tea party, which had lasted longer than expected, ended, the night sky had already turned dark.
Count Yesod walked along the corridor of the grand bath towards Diana’s room.
She hadn’t had dinner with her today, so she was going to get a report on the situation, even if it was late.
“My dear~ Shall we take a bath together, just the two of us, after a long time?”
Lucy Yesod opened Diana’s door with a bright smile, thinking about seeing her lovely daughter.
And she froze on the spot.
Because an unbelievable sight was unfolding before her eyes.
“Ugh…! Hmmm…!”
Diana was sitting at the table, holding a peacock feather pen.
She swallowed hard and glanced sideways, seeing a pile of magic books stacked on the desk.
Diana was so engrossed in her studies that she didn’t even notice Yesod entering.
The countess covered her mouth.
Her nose felt hot, and her throat tingled.
Tears were welling up in her eyes, overwhelmed by her daughter’s admirable behavior.
Good heavens.
Diana was studying until this hour.
She rubbed her eyes several times, but it was the same.
She was frowning and messing up her hair, as if something wasn’t working out, but she was still engrossed in her studies.
Had Diana ever stuck with her boring studies before?
It was the first time she had seen such a sight since she had taken her in as an apprentice witch, and her heart was overflowing.
Lucy quietly closed the door, so as not to disturb her.
“Sob… sob…. Sob…! You’re amazing, Diana! You’re amazing, my daughter…!”
She couldn’t help but cover her mouth and shed tears at the sight of her daughter, who had grown so much in a short time.
They were tears of emotion.
