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n“Why do you want me to be your master? Does it have to be me? There should be many who are more suitable than me in this city alone. So why bother with me?” asked Zach as he tried to figure out her reasons for approaching him. He was fully aware of his own value and knew that there was no way a figure like Diana would want to follow after him without a valid reason.

n“Is she interested in black magic? Is that why she is asking me to be her teacher?” thought Zach as the whole Luther family had somehow come to believe the misconception that Zach was a powerful dark mage.

nHis line of thought was broken into pieces by the very first words she uttered to him in response to his earlier question.

n“First…I don’t want to marry Raisman and secondly…I am eager to become stronger; stronger than all of Sosis family, stronger than they can ever hope to become so I can protect what is important to me.”

nZach nodded like those old masters in the movies from his previous world as he pretended to know the ways of the world. He lightly nodded his head in response to her escalating voice which gave the impression that he clearly understood all her predicaments.

n“But is that all?” Zach had been feeling that Diana was acting weird as she refused to look at him and kept her head lowered. He felt as if there was something that Diana was not being honest about.

n“Umm…my power suddenly increased from E rank to D rank even though I didn’t absorb the soul crystal I got from the Dark Wood Hedgehog. At first I was shocked but then I couldn’t believe how easy it had been. It was like I woke up one day and suddenly found myself full of strength capable of smashing any E rank mage into the ground without any effort. And then it clicked in mind…” Diana acquiesced to his on point probing and revealed that she had suddenly upgraded to D rank without doing anything in particular.

n“WHAT…WHAT CLICKED?” Zach wanted to shout out the frustration that he was feeling because of the cliffhanger at which she had stopped midsentence.

n“Your blood… It should be the secret behind my newfound strength…Master.” Diana paused before saying the last word but when she said it…it was with a boiling resolve.

nA serious expression appeared on Zach’s face as he felt that he had anticipated the answer too much. In reality the reason had been too simple and it should have been the first thing that should have come to his mind.

nIt was then that he figured out something about Diana… she was a beauty with brains. She wasn’t as helpless as she seemed sometimes. She had figured out the trick with his blood without any outside help or hint. Even Luna hadn’t been able to figure it out despite having slept with him.

n“Then what about your family? I heard that they spared your family only because you agreed to marry the heir to the Sosis family. If you are going to follow me, then are you going to let your family suffer at their hands? What about your brother then?” Zach asked with a snake like cunning smile that wasn’t like a smile at all. .

n“If you decided to let me follow you, will you still let me go to another man?” Diana asked rhetorically because she already knew the answer to that. She had already seen how he took care of Luna despite her position being lower than his own.

nZach let out a sigh as if she had convinced him with her somewhat manipulative logic. But even more effective than that had been the fact that Zach didn’t want to let some bastard like Raisman take advantage of a nice girl like her. Moreover, he had already decided to help Bruce with breaking off her engagement.

n“Fine, consider it as if your tenacity has won. I will help you break your engagement with that lecherous bastard but we need to look for a way that won’t result in the declaration of war between the families or it might even backfire on us. Your brother might have to bear the brunt of it for you in that case.”

nZack reassured her that she wouldn’t have to marry that bastard but for that to work he wanted to discuss a way forward with Bruce who was going to be as much involved in the aftermath as him.

nAs soon as they came out into the corridor in order to go talk to Bruce about their way forward, they heard a voice in the vicinity that seemed to be calling for Zach.

nWho else could it have been but Luna? She was already on the lookout for Zach as she felt that it had been quite some time since he left their room. She got worried and decided to come out to look for him.

nZach wondered how she had managed to locate him in the maze of corridors when he couldn’t make the slightest sense of the super structure.

nWith all three of them together, they decided to call on Bruce together so that everyone could understand their role in this situation.

nBruce was surprised to see all three of them together. Since it was such an unlikely event, Bruce felt that something could have gone wrong. His heart nearly gave out as he felt his lungs being stomped by a thousand elephants. His heartbeat grew faster than a piston engine and the sound of it could be heard by anyone in the room.

n“Is everything alright?” asked Bruce, his voice filled with genuine concern.

n“It’s time to break off her engagement with that lecher.” Zack responded with utmost confidence in his voice.

nBruce understood their determination with just a single glance. Their body language perfectly mirrored his observation.

nSince he had already made Zach promise him regarding the annulment of the engagement, he had been looking forward to discussing the details with Zach. But before he could take the initiative in his hands, Zach had come looking for him with Diana in tow in order to discuss the very same thing.

nBruce nodded and offered seats to all of them. There was room enough for three to sit at the small table in his room. Since he was already sitting in his wheelchair, the three of them each took a seat. Luna had come as an observer of sorts since she wasn’t a direct part of anything regarding the Luther family. She had her fate entangled with the Luther family because of her association with her master who had promised to help out the brother and sister duo.

n“As eager as I am to get my sister out of this abominable engagement, we can’t be too upfront about it. We need to have a reasonable excuse or a logical reason to do such a thing.” Bruce initiated the conversation since all of them were reluctant to begin probably because they were not very comfortable with each other as it was their first time being together as a group.

n“Exactly what we were thinking…we need to take the morally high ground now since we already signed the contract in plain sight of the public. There are surely a lot of witnesses to that so we can’t be too deliberate about it.” Diana agreed with her brother’s point of view as Zach had previously been of the same opinion.

nLuna was basically a silent observer as she nodded along with everything that Zach said and observed the reactions of the other two. She glared at them when they didn’t agree with Zach’s suggestions and listened attentively when he spoke. Other than that she didn’t care even if the Luther family went up in flames.

nBruce felt that they needed to wait a bit for a solution to emerge on its own. He felt that there moment would come soon if the Sosis family tried to be more forceful with them. Diana on the other hand didn’t want to be associated with that lecher for a second more so she pushed for a more aggressive approach.

nDiscussion went on and finally Zack came up with an idea that not only addressed the problem but also had the potential to save their family’s name.

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